A tale of two ports

Jobs in jeopardy East & West as planned port closures & a third operator threaten the viability of Sydney and Fremantle operations

It could not have come at a worse time. Just as the union was sitting at the negotiating table arguing with Patrick Stevedores for workers to be made permanent, the WA Port Authority notified the union it was considering allowing a third operator to set up business in Fremantle.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin flew to Perth to meet with Minister for Transport Alicia McTiernan and put the union case. Fremantle could not sustain three stevedoring companies. Job security would be undermined.

"Our members are fed up with casualisation in our industry," he said. "Fremantle is a small port with plenty of stevedoring capacity. More stevedores will mean more casuals and more uncertainty. Bugger that!"

The Mediterranean Shipping Company is probably the third biggest shipping company in the world according to WA Branch Secretary Chris Cain. It makes up 40 per cent of trade in the Port of Fremantle -- stevedoring work that is currently mainly contracted to Patrick. Now they also want their own stevedoring operation at a third terminal.

"We're saying there's only room for two," said Cain. "It's come at the wrong time -- right in the middle of the Patrick EBA. We're looking at more perm anent jobs. We do what's best for our members. A third operator threatens jobs - a couple of hundred jobs are at stake. Patrick would close up if it lost 70 per cent of its business. I reckon they'd fold up and leave the joint or fall on the other two stevedores in a punch up. Jobs at P&O would go too."

The government has now informed the union that it is reconsidering the matter and will inform us of further developments. The minister has been a great supporter of the MUA and the maritime industry to date.

Sydney Harbour

Bob May has lived in the Sydney Harbour suburb of Pyrmont and worked the wharves all his life. So did his dad. So did his grandfather. But that's not the only reason he's crook on the state government plan to shut down the Harbour to shipping in 2006.

"The sign's still standing," he said. "They promised it would be 2020. It just doesn't make sense. And it's not just the workers who are dirty on what's happening, it's the shippers and the shipowners. They don't want to have to bring everything back up from down the coast. And the residents here don't want dirty big blocks of flats built all along the waterfront. It's madness."

Carr Crash

Transport is not State Premier Bob Carr's strong point. Train crashes, ferry delays, road disasters and the harbour closure have all made headlines and helped the once popular premier plummet into loser mode for Labor come next election.

The Sydney Harbour closure is not going to go away. Too many questions remain unanswered. Why close down White Bay after a multi-million dollar investment into making it a super bulk and general terminal connected to a rail head and the Western distributor roadway in favour of cramped quarters in Darling Harbour in the heart of the city and heavy vehicle congestion?

"Is it either stupidity or a clever ploy to make things so uncomfortable and unworkable that we'll have to go even before 2006," said Sydney Branch Secretary Robert Coombs. "The White Bay terminal was fitted with two portainer cranes and a large capacity slew and jib crane. Box rates got up to 21 per hour. Now they've slumped to six per hour. It's just too congested. They don't have the equipment. And it's just adding to traffic in the heart of Sydney."

But that's what they did. Both P&O and Patrick are now cramped together at 5 Darling Harbour. The immediate industrial problems the branch sorted in the short term - no job loss yet and both stevedores agreeing to company interhire. But in the long term things look bad.

"The union supports the further development of the ports of Newcastle and Port Kembla," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "New facilities are needed in both areas to service the region and the growing population there, but not at the expense of the livelihood of Sydney workers.

Most of the Sydney trade moves within a 40 kilometre radius once it comes off the ships. Bringing it back from up or down the coast would add up to $300 a container in transhipment costs or around $300 million overnight. That cost would be passed on to consumers.

Port Kembla is closer than Newcastle but the Waterfall rail line is inadequate. Speed limits and peak hour curfews on rail could result in a backlog of cargo left on the docks. Trucks have Mount Ousley to contend with.

Shippers are already threatening to put everything into containers so they can offload at Port Botany. But Botany too is set to reach full capacity by 2010, long before any new expansion can be completed. Not when there's still the environmental impact study and community opposition to overcome.

"Fair dinkum, they couldn't make a decision for the life of them," said Crumlin. "They need to extract the digit to develop not only a plan for Sydney's expanded needs but for Newcastle and Kembla as well."

"It just doesn't make sense," said Coombs. "Who's to gain from the plan? Developers and profiteers taking away more harbour frontage from the public and making a fortune on gentrifying even more of the waterfront?

"We're not just looking at losing around 300 jobs here," he said. "It's not just our members, wharfies, tugs, line gangs, pilotage, port corp. workers will all go - along with ship repair and maintenance, commercial divers, barges, wharf maintenance workers and so on. These changes signal a significant cultural change in Sydney Harbour as a workplace. It will impact on many families who survive off the harbour as a source of work. It's incredibly foolhardy to suggest whole communities are going to be able to simply pack up and follow the shipping elsewhere," said Coombs.

In its submission to the enquiry, the union stresses that much to be taken into account at Port Botany too.

"We welcome the enquiry into the proposed development so that public scrutiny and concerns can be heard and dealt with," said Coombs. "The MUA can only give final endorsement to the Botany expansion after all environmental and social issues are addressed.

Robert Coombs has been called to give testimony at the inquiry in July.