Maritime Diary

By National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin

The Howard Government promised interest rates would not rise. They put the frighteners on about a Labor Government raising rates.... Australian interest rates are now the third highest in the world. Health care costs are ballooning for families. And more interest rate increases to come.

We all prize the financial security of our families ... Nothing threatens that security more directly than the prospect of rising interest rates. Rising interest rates dominates everything else when it comes to family security. Just a tiny upward movement in interest rates more than devours a few dollars of taxation relief or additional family benefits. There is no economic credential for office more crucial than a capacity to keep interest rates low.

- John Howard (Campaign Launch, September, 26, 2004)

Yeah, and you're a liar Mr Howard. Australians have fallen for the three card trick again from that crap.

They put the frighteners on about a Labor Government raising rates. They then proceeded to strip our national assets, the surplus wealth we had contributed through our taxes, and flushed it down their political toilet of favours and regional pork barrelling. The result - interest rates are up within a few months of the election, we have the highest current account imbalance ever of around $60 billion a year, and the economy is slowing.

So what are they going to do about it? Belt workers and unions of course. They'll try to dump the rest of our merchant fleet so we can import more services and guest workers and further add to the current account deficit, sending interest rates even higher. IR changes taking away penalty rates, sick leave, annual leave, long service leave, redundancy and just about everything else from our Awards, will then restrict the ability of workers to do anything but stand on the sideline and watch.

Well this union identified the bastardry of this Government and was vocal in exposing it. The majority of Australians didn't, and gave them a bigger hammer to drive workers down - control of the Senate. Maybe a few are waking up and blinking at what they are now seeing, rather than hearing, since the last election. The shock must be shattering, particularly for younger people with the big mortgages. Let's hope they stay awake to what the Federal Government is up to, re-making Australia first and foremost for the big monolithic business interests.

As for our union? We'll take the ball right up the middle and will go through to full time regardless of the weather or the score, but we'll all have to train harder and make sure everyone's on the team.

Serf's Up

Nearly 93% of SERF members have opted for the union new negotiated scheme and received 14% on their existing benefit, higher employer contributions and more control over where their money is invested.

Talk about a marathon negotiation, but given the current industrial and political circumstances, getting the employers to agree to forego a large part of the money allocated to them for a five year total holiday on their contributions was never going to be easy.

The union's claim followed the folding of the Early Retirement Agreement after the Patrick Dispute. We determined on a plan that would potentially benefit every worker rather than a handful who also took their permanent job out of the industry with the payment.

Thanks to all the members for sticking with and supporting this vision for enhanced financial independence in retirement for stevedoring workers, it kept our batteries charged through some tough times.

Non Pasaran

In El Salvador it was a hot and humid night. The mobile phone rang, piercing the quiet of the working class home in one of the slums of the capital. The union organiser, in his home town from the US to help organise the truckers carrying containers in and out of the APM Terminal, answered the call. The reception was poor so he walked out of the door of his mother's house and was shot in the head and back. Another day, another body in the fight to build effective organisation for workers around the world.

The 50 year old unionist, Gilberto Soto, was part of a union campaign in North and South America to unionise port terminals. The El Salvador terminal is owned by AP (Moller) which operates terminals around the world and owns the shipping company Maersk.

The MUA and ITF are in the forefront of finding out what happened and who is responsible and will not rest until the murderers and anyone who supported them, are brought to account.

Different country, different way of crushing workers' rights, that's all. We really do believe we are brothers and sisters in the labour movement and we will be sending someone to El Salvador with other international unions to see what's going on. We will also be sending a record number of rank and file members from all sections to the International Mining and Maritime Conference in Los Angeles to sit down and plan what we can do to protect the right to organise and protect our jobs and families. In some cases that also means our right not to be murdered for our political and industrial work.

How the west was won

The return of the Labor Government in West Australia was a relief, and again our union and our officials and members were strongly involved in the campaign. We were helped a bit by the rooster heading up the opposition who wanted to dig a canal from the Kimberley to Perth. Say what?

The big mining and hydrocarbon companies, proud of their own union busting and worker bashing track record, were salivating at the thought of the WA rednecks getting together with the Canberra toe cutters, but were disappointed finally by the WA electorate.

It was a big turnaround from the WA result in the Federal Election and a credit to the union movement, particularly our branch. The Minister for Transport, Alannah MacTiernan, has been particularly supportive of maritime workers needs and issues and we're sure this will now continue at a time when every bit of help is appreciated in a state where enormous mining and hydrocarbon infrastructure programs are underway involving every section of the maritime industry.

On time, every time

The NW Shelf LNG Project has been enormously benefited by not only the safety and efficiency of its track record in exporting gas by ship, but also the faultless Industrial Relations record that has seen every cargo leave Australia and arrive in Japan on time. The relationship with the maritime unions has been at the heart of that success on the tugs, in the offshore, and on our of the nine ships. I recently met with the Japanese Seamen's Union who pledged direct support for the ITF's commitment to protect Australian seafarers under attack from the Howard Government's ideologically driven national agenda.

The NW Shelf Project partners want to think very carefully about buying into anything except the tried, true and tested approach to shipping their LNG. The contracts are long, the history is long and things usually go amiss only when the memories are short.