MegaConference

• Labor Promises
• The Casual Class
• Global Solidarity
• Union Veterans

Resolutions to expand the union into new areas like recreational diving and pearling, launch joint endeavours with other transport unions here and abroad, rally workers against the Howard Government at the next election, do away with casualisation in the industry, outlaw ships with manual twist locks, promote women and family issues, build a database to source jobs for all maritime workers across all industries, create a union film program, better superannuation and early retirement plans -- all aim to empower members and ready the MUA for the challenges ahead.

Labor Promises

Conference began on Monday March 15 with a welcome to country by Kevin Tory of the Gattalan tribe and an official opening by Labor leader Mark Latham. Latham promised a Labor Government would protect Australian shipping and Australian seafaring jobs, banish individual contracts (AWAs), reintroduce collective bargaining, give workers trapped in casual positions the chance to become permanent, strengthen the power of Australian Industrial Commission, restore bulk billing, put more money into public education and abolish Peter Reith's plum junket in Paris. "We're also going to insist on Australian jobs going to Australian workers and stop Mr Howard using loopholes in the Navigation Act to drive down the wages and conditions of Australian seafarers by employing guest workers on Australian coastal shipping," he said. The Opposition Leader also promised that Labor would continue to chase in the courts the documents surrounding the Government's involvement in the 1998 waterfront conspiracy. Key conference themes were the need to defeat the Howard Government, increase global solidarity, and end casualisation to provide 'safe, secure and decent jobs for all maritime workers'. "We've come from a long history of struggle, particularly in the last seven years. We've been belted from pillar to post for no other reason than we've been prepared to stand up for our rights and have been for a very long time," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "We've been belted, pinched, locked out, lied about, vilified for that whole period of the Howard Government. And we're going to do something about it. We haven't survived from 1872 to 2004 without the willingness to engage, organise and take on struggle. You can't win industrial battles unless you win the political battles." ACTU Secretary Greg Combet also stressed the importance of workers getting behind a change of government this year and expressed his concern that Labor was attracting less than 40 per cent of the union membership vote.

The Casual Class

Pointing to the latest statistics, Combet noted that while Australia now had the highest company profits in history, the prosperity and wealth was not being shared equally. "People at the top end of town are doing very well," he said. "But 3.6 million people are living on less than $400 week. On top of that, the Howard Government has worked to make sure that people have to meet the cost of their own health. When it comes to education and schooling more money goes to private schools, when it comes to tertiary education you now have to take out increasing loans to get your kids into universities. That means all the collective talent of working-class families held out of an education and not being able to contribute to this society." In the workplace, Combet said one of the biggest issues concerning members on the job was casual employment, with well over two million workers -- or nearly 30 per cent of the workforce -- now employed as casuals. "They have no paid sick leave, they have no right to take time off, they've got no paid annual leave, they've got no job security past the next shift," he said. "Yet when you break down the figures, well over one million of them, over half them, are people who are working for the same employer on the same roster, on the same hours, day after day, week after week and they've been doing for it for at least 12 months. "That's 1.5 million people being exploited by the employer as casuals. Now that's a scam. And we have to put an end to it." Special tribute was paid to the late Tas Bull, former general secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation, who died last year. The conference watched a film and observed a minute's silence.

Global Solidarity

In his address, Paddy Crumlin stressed the need for transport workers to organise globally to ensure that a militant and progressive union survives into the next century. "It doesn't matter whether you are on the docks, in the rail system, on the roads, in aviation, the logistics industries, in the depots, on the ships -- you've got the same companies controlling these transport companies," he said. "The same systematic approach to transport is happening all around the world. And if all the transport workers in the world have any hope of challenging the enormous pressures and opportunities, we have to get together." Crumlin called for the members to engage in international solidarity in East Timor, Japan, the US, and Africa so they can identify with the global threat. International Transport Workers' Federation General Secretary David Cockroft sent words of solidarity by way of a video address with ITF Special Seafarers' Division Secretary Steve Cotton attending the full week. Cotton outlined the recent success of the ITF in negotiating an international agreement with shipowners covering 1500 ships. "We are the only transport sector in world, the only workers' forum where we negotiate across national boundaries," he said. "We have been able to bring to the table employers representing 3000 ships to negotiate with the ITF team, including Paddy Crumlin. We were able to set a new agenda. Now other employer groups want to join -- the Koreans, the Danish and the Dutch all want to sit around the table." International guest ILWU International Vice-President Bob McIllraith explained how the Bush regime had used 9/11 to remove civil liberties, especially in the ports, spending more resources on doing security checks on workers than containers. "You've got John Howard," he said. "We've got the son of a Bush. We need to get these guys out. Bush has gutted the working man in the US. They might as well put a chip in your neck and follow you all around the world to see where you are at." During the contract negotiations, the Government vilified the unionists as economic terrorists. "We struggled and fought and it was only because of the unions around the world that we won," he said. "Because the Government was watching and knew what we were going to do. They knew if they screwed with us in the US, they would get screwed all around the world. "This world is too small to not stick together. And it wasn't 10,500 longshoremen who won that struggle over there with our contract, it was all the unions around the world sticking together." The ILWU then made presentations to Paddy Crumlin and John Maitland, CFMEU National Secretary. "There's no doubt that trade unionism is in crisis," said Maitland. "Governments are weaker and give in to the pressure of huge multinational corporations. Institutions to deal with international capital and social justice have given up. But we have great optimism, we have great opportunities, great people, our rank-and-file are magnificent, our communities ready." Representatives from the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labour presented the Maritime Union with their highest award for its contribution to the independence struggle against French and US imperialism in the 1950s. And delegates raised $2,000 for the family of a Timorese waterside worker killed in a work accident. Until the early 1900s, the Seamen's Union covered both Australian and New Zealand seafarers and at this conference the call was again made for maritime workers across the Tasman to work together more closely. "The MUA is the closest ally we've got. Trans Tasman unity is the only way forward for us and all of us in the Pacific Basin," said National Secretary Trevor Hanson, Maritime Union of New Zealand. "Because we are all working for the same employer those ships are going around in a circuit. "The survival of the New Zealand shipping industry is in doubt. The main employer is reduced to two ships. There's only another 11 running around the coast. But we're still battling away. We're not going to go away, we just keep on fighting." Other international guests included 35 maritime and transport representatives from Japan, The Netherlands, PNG, NZ, South Africa, East Timor, the US, Vanuatu and Vietnam. Special guest speakers also included representatives of Australian transport, maritime and mining unions. Conference was also a launch pad for the MUA website education project for schools, provided by union historian Rowan Cahill and a national launch for the MUA songs CD With These Arms. The week-long conference also featured a women's dinner, conference dinner, a film night, events for international guests and the International Women's Day March.

Union Veterans

The national delegates' conference was also a time for women members to meet and our veteran maritime workers to get together. The second national MUA veterans' conference was held in the union rooms on the Tuesday and by mid-week Secretary Bill Bodenham was able to report to delegates that "you can have an early knock-off today because we fixed everything for you yesterday". "We opposed Australian involvement in the US missile defence policy and the Free Trade Agreement," he announced. "We addressed public housing and health and opposed the FTA. But the number-one priority of the working class of Australia is to defeat the Howard Government at the next election." MUA veterans also voted to set up an international confederation of retired maritime workers and proposed that they be invited to attend branch meetings "so we can get more involved and pass on our experiences and help young comrades in their campaigns that come from this conference".

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