Industrial Rounds

Blood on the crane

ILWU FACE PATRICK STYLE LOCKOUT

The MUA will give its all to US wharfies.

This is what National Secretary Paddy Crumlin told The Australian Financial Review on June 28.

"If the worst excesses of multinational capital emerge in this dispute, then it becomes a political issue for the international trade union movement," he told AFR.

"The ILWU gave tremendous support to Australian maritime workers during the Patrick lockout," he said. "They risked massive fines and declared the Columbus Canada black. The scab-loaded vessel was sent back to New Zealand to be discharged and loaded again by union labour after sitting off the coast of San Francisco for weeks, its cargo rotting."

Maritime workers worldwide are preparing for a lock out on the West Coast of the US on the scale of the 1998 Patrick dispute. US wharfies are gearing up to do battle with the employers as work contract talks stall over the bosses attempts to take away health, welfare benefits and working conditions. The existing contract expired on July 1.

Executive meetings of the world's stevedoring and seafaring unions at the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in London passed resolutions in solidarity with the US West Coast wharfies, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in May. Both meetings included representatives from the MUA.

Any solidarity action will be two-pronged as both dockworker unions and seafaring unions have pledged their full and unequivocal support.

"The MUA and other international maritime unions are determined we will not be stood over by multinationals slashing our job conditions," said Paddy Crumlin.

US employer group Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) representatives, at loggerheads with the ILWU, have threatened a lockout of workers along the entire West Coast. PMA is made up of 80 shipping and port companies, including Wilhelmsen Line, Hapag Lloyd, K'Line, Maersk, OOCL, P&O Nedloyd, Zim Lines, COSCO and CSX - all of which also operate in Australia.

Crumlin said international shipowners had targeted the ILWU in an attempt to unwind conditions of employment for international dockworkers. Top of the bosses agenda was the dismantling of effective international trade unionism.

Before the contract expired on July I, the ILWU held a massive international solidarity rally in Los Angeles and the West Coast. Tied up with ILO commitments, Paddy Crumlin had to decline ILWU President Jim Spinosa's invitation to attend the rally. But the MUA has pledged to sit in on the negotiations to demonstrate solidarity if the dispute worsens. Representatives of the ITF and other international labour federations addressed the port workers solidarity rally in the Port of Oakland,on Friday, June 28.

No strike action can take place until a 30 day cooling off period has expired following a breakdown in negotiations and for the moment being work is continuing as normal.

"There is no doubt that the MUA and the ILWU are two of the most effective international dockworkers unions and the increasing closeness of the relationship by the two unions is of great concern to the international economic forces that are seeking to deregulate the maritime industry," said Crumlin, calling on all monthly meetings and workplaces to send resolutions of full industrial, political and financial support to their ILWU brother and sisters.

PORTS OF CONVENIENCE

Industrial unrest is also brewing in Europe where the European Union Council of Transport Ministers has adopted a proposal to allow shipping companies to replace port workers with ship's crew or private workforces to stevedore their cargo. The ITF has warned this would create ports of convenience --substandard operations exploiting an unregulated labour market of cheap but untrained, inexperienced and unregistered workers.

The full background paper on the EEC developments is available on the MUA website: www.mua.org.au/campaigns

REINSTATED

They're back. Mark Evans and Justin Barnes have returned to the Melbourne wharves after losing their jobs three years ago.

Patrick Stevedores terminated the services of Evans and Barnes on December 6, 1999, alleging misconduct.

National Industrial Officer Bill Giddins reports that both members applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. They claimed that their termination was harsh, unjust or unreasonable.

Both attended conciliation and when that was unsuccessful they proceeded to arbitration with union help.

On May 22, Commissioner Cribb found that there was no valid reason for the termination of either employee. But Commissioner Cribb also said reinstatement was not the way to go, suggesting financial compensation instead.

But the men wanted their jobs back. So the MUA, with National Secretary Paddy Crumlin directly involved, held talks with Patrick management and negotiated an outcome that put Evans and Barnes back on the job.

It's a fresh start, with all previous service and warnings removed.

"This is a significant outcome given that the Commission had refused reinstatement," said Giddins. "It is also testimony to the company's new constructive relationship with the union. This is built on the platform of the 2001 Enterprise Bargaining negotiations."

$23M WIN FOR MINERS

Tony Maher, General President of the Miners Union reports on how guts, determination and solidarity ensured a record $25 million payment in miners unfair dismissals settlement with Rio Tinto:

With the unstinting support of the MUA and the working class movement, our Union and its members have once again chalked up another first in Australia's history with a record $25 million settlement of the Hunter Valley No.1 and Mount Thorley unfair dismissals dispute with Rio Tinto.

When the 190 unfairly dismissed mineworkers from both operations met in Cessnock on May 31 and overwhelmingly voted to accept the $25 million settlement it brought the curtain down on one of the most bitter and protracted disputes in the coal industry's history.

The 108 Hunter Valley mineworkers were unfairly dismissed on October 20, 1998 and the 82 Mount Thorley mineworkers were unfairly dismissed on November 17, 1999.

In the years since then, these workers and their families have fought for their rights and their dignity.

I want to pay tribute to those mineworkers and their families. They have earned a proud place in our history. They have proven that it is not the powerful who inflict the most pain who triumph in the end; it is those who have the courage of their convictions to endure the hardships and falsehoods.

The guts and determination of the Hunter Valley No.1 and Mount Thorley mineworkers was matched by the magnificent solidarity of their fellow Union members throughout Australia. The MUA was with us every step of the way.

We took the fight into the lion's den and mounted a telling corporate and public campaign.

In the end, Rio accepted that we weren't going away. Nor were its problems. Rio replaced its aggressive anti-union squad leaders in the Hunter Valley with a new management team that had a more positive approach to resolving issues. And this provided a mechanism for the settlement breakthrough.

In contrast to the Hunter Valley, Rio's Central Queensland hit-men are still presiding over its Blair Athol coal operation. This is the scene of Australia's longest running unfair dismissal dispute. On July 21 it will be exactly four years since 16 of our members were unfairly dismissed. Although Rio has been ordered over a year ago to reinstate them, the 16 still remain out the gate but on full pay.

It is time that Rio drew the curtain on the Blair Athol dispute and if that means knocking its obstinate management's heads together in Central Queensland, then so be it.

Finally, it is the Howard Government's rotten anti-worker laws that make it possible for workers to be denied justice for so long. No other Australian should be put through what these Hunter Valley No.1 and Mount Thorley workers and their families have had to suffer and what the Blair Athol mineworkers are continuing to endure. The Howard Government must be forced to fix its unfair dismissal laws now.

In conclusion, on behalf of the unfairly dismissed mineworkers, their families and our Union, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to the MUA for the magnificent and unstinting support you have given us throughout the years of struggle. We could not have sustained the campaign without you. Our triumph is your victory, too.