Ship Shape

SeaCare Under Threat

Compensation and safety for seafarers has joined Medicare, welfare, awards, the Commission and cabotage on the Federal Government's hit list for July 1.

In March Canberra announced it was conducting a review into both the Seafarer's Compensation Act and the Seafarer's Occupational Health & Safety Act. The intention is all too clear -- to downgrade or eliminate both acts.

The review follows mounting criticism that the system is too expensive.

Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman has taken over from National Secretary Paddy Crumlin as a member of the SeaCare Authority, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Workplace Relations and governs compensation and safety for seafarers. It is one of only two federal compensation and OH&S jurisdictions in the country.

"The Government has paid big bucks to discredit seafarer a' compensation, while the union has poured our resources into protecting it," said Mick Doleman. "Now it's clear that together with the Navigation Act clauses protecting cabotage, the award system and welfare, it's facing the axe when the Howard Government gains control of the Upper House."

The MUA has commissioned an extensive submission to the review, arguing both acts should be retained on safety, national interest and environmental grounds.

"It's likely to be a long and difficult struggle to defend seafarers' safety and it will draw enormously on union resources," said Comrade Doleman. "But they have benefited the industry, its workers and the national economy. It is another reminder of the devastating effect of the Australian electorate handing the Howard Government control of the legislative process in this country."

TransTasman Solidarity

oint executive meeting of the Maritime Union of New Zealand and the MUA took place in Sydney in March to pave the way for the formation of a Tasman Maritime Federation. Draft rules are in place and common industrial/political positions identified.

The unions have identified the common targets as recruiting and organising new members in rail, road and ports where outsourcing, casualisation and de-unionisation is especially rampant in logistics and freight forwarding. Patrick Corporation has recently bought out FCL, one of the major freight forwarding companies in Australia and continues to consolidate its monopoly of transport and intermodal freight forwarding, as does Toll.

"We need a total transport strategy of union solidarity to deal with these issues," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin.

The MUA has invited the New Zealand unions to mount a joint campaign because of Toll's dominance of shipping and stevedoring on both sides of the Tasman.

In New Zealand, Toll is seeking regional agreements that undermine national standards in stevedoring, shipping and rail.

Union executive discussed a strategy of bringing together Toll workers and unions to develop a more effective trans-Tasman trade union initiative. Executive called for a conference, with the New Zealand government, the ACTU and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions all invited to send speakers.

With a NZ election due this year the unions will push to have the government commit to cabotage, revitalising the shipping industry and adopting more progressive industrial and political programs.

"Great solidarity has been developed through the MUA/MUNZ campaign to promote employment in areas such as the offshore industry, in the mutual interest of both organisations," said Paddy Crumlin. "The Federation believes the Labor Government should develop more sympathetic policies on taxation and flag protection so as to promote the New Zealand merchant service. The collapse of New Zealand shipping would have an inevitably deleterious effect on the Australian shipping industry."

Other issues on the TransTasman Federation agenda are the ITF and Pacific Rim, proposed amalgamation of MUNZ and the Rail & Maritime Transport Union this June and the joint MUA/MUNZ delegation to the Maritime and Mining Conference in Los Angeles in May.

The LA conference is being watched by the international shipping and transport industry as a meeting bringing together some of the most militant maritime unions in the world.

Comrade Crumlin gave an overview of his ITF roles and responsibilities in respect to the International Bargaining Forum and the Ratings Taskforce submission and his position with the Dockers and Seafarers Section of the ITF Fair Practices Committee, to the Tasman Maritime Federation.

The Federation congratulated the National Secretary on this work to develop a militant international campaign in protection of maritime workers' rights.

World Seafarer's Agreement

Toll Strategy

Australian and New Zealand seafarers working on Toll ships are taking a united stand against their employer. A Toll seafarers conference was held in Wellington in March and MUA Assistant National Secretary Rick Newlyn was invited to report on Toll tactics in Australian shipping. Rank and filers James Marshall and Dean Rafferty from the Toll Bass trading vessels also attended alongside Victorian Deputy Secretary Dave Schleibs and Tasmanian Secretary Mike Wickham.

"In a congested three days the struggle against Toll, free trade, the attempts at degrading the IR system, national and international solidarity, possible amalgamation of MUNZ with RMTU, youth and women's organising roles in the union, delegate training and superannuation were all on the agenda," said Dean Rafferty. "In the 12 months since Toll moved into inter-island ferries and New Zealand waterfronts and logistics, they have tried to cut superannuation entitlements, labour and permanent employment levels and are expected to attempt to lower wages and conditions on the Cook Straight run, in line with their competition, Straight Line Ferries."

The unions are also developing a template for conditions of all waterfront workers and seafarers to assist in the struggle against Toll and to unite all members in future confrontations.

"The history between Australian and New Zealand comrades has always been strong," said Comrade Rafferty. "New Zealand seafarers recently assisted in covering labour shortages on the Australian coast. Their defiance and strength against persecution over the past decades is inspirational for younger members such as myself and I am grateful for the chance to learn and participate in the movement of Australasian solidarity."

Destiny Queen

The campaign continues against the abalone farming industry's blatant abuse and rorting of immigration laws and cabotage by replacing its Australian crew with Ukrainian officers and engineers and Chinese nationals.

Attempts by branch officials to lobby the transport minister have met with a very poor response. But in March the minister resigned and a new minister was appointed.

"We are seeking to put forward our argument and once again we are seeking the assistance of the ACTU President Sharan Burrow and the SA Trades & Labor Council Secretary Janet Giles to get an outcome sooner rather than later," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "The government wants our support to facilitate the export of cars through South Australian ports and we've told them we're not co-operating in any joint initiatives unless the disgraceful use of foreign slave labour in South Australian regional waters is resolved. Nor will we be willing to support that government in the next election if they refuse to budge on the issue"

The National Secretary moved a resolution at last week's ACTU executive that the union movement campaigns against this illegal use of foreign labour in favour of developing a proper skills base within the Australian workforce. "We have a skills shortage in many industries, particularly blue collar industries, and government policy is to blame," said Comrade Crumlin. "The Government is seeking to cover up its vandalism of our national training structure through recruitment of overseas workers.

The involvement of the MUA in this campaign is central to the promotion of our shipping and maritime industry." The National Secretary met with Hong Kong affilliates and Register on the appalling arrangement aboard what is effectively a ship that works full tim in Australia. The SA Government is also seeking legal advice on he vessel and business.

Security Threats

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, National Executive Officer Joanne White and National ITF Coordinator Dean Summers met with the Maritime Industry Consultative forum in Melbourne in March, alongside all major industry stakeholders and relevant department heads, to finalise security initiatives required to meet ISPS standards.

"The MUA has been effective at every stage of this process," said Paddy Crumlin. "We have preserved our members' rights against attempts to restrict union access to ports and ships, big brother style ID cards that would infringe on human rights and draconian background checks that would undermine members' job security. The Maritime Transport Security Act is now in place and the MUA has successfully met all challenges."

The issue of maritime security, however, will be a constant matter requiring union participation at all levels. Where members are asked to agree to security changes they should first seek advice from their delegates and branches.

Fair Practice

An MUA delegation attended the Fair Practices Committee meeting of the International Transport Workers' Federation in Rio in April to determine seafaring and dockers conditions. The delegation comprised National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, who chaired the dockers' section meeting and co-chaired the Fair Practices Committee, the Deputy National Secretary Jim Tannock, ITF Coordinators Dean Summers and Matt Purcell, and National Women's Liaison Officer Karen Leavy.

Some 500 delegates from 57 countries attended to further develop the ports of convenience campaign.

"Without strong international dockworker unions the flag of convenience campaign had no hope of meeting its aim of returning ships to national flag jurisdiction and improving seafarers' working conditions in the international shipping industry," Paddy Crumlin told the committee.

Increasingly, ships are arriving in port unlashed or cargo is being lashed by ship's crew. This has the effect of undermining the capacity of shore-based dock unions to protect their own conditions of employment, much less compel minimum ITF standards through the enforcement of ITF agreements aboard FOC vessels.

"Another key issue was the erosion of seafaring jobs, particularly ratings, in the international shipping industry for seafarers from developed countries," said Paddy Crumlin. "Strong and vigorous debate took place. Unless all unions from developed and developing countries work together to find acceptable, mutual outcomes, then the FOC campaign will ultimately fail. Without unions like the MUA, who's going to ensure the protection of ITF agreements?"

After further robust debate, the Fair Practices Committee undertook to have the ITF Secretariat address the matter in a policy document. The committee also determined to support and strengthen the Ports of Convenience campaign so that dockworkers could effectively assist the FOC campaign while protecting their own work conditions.

As part of the Ports of Convenience campaign the ITF and its affiliates will target the main Global Network Terminals in stevedoring which include Maersk (AP Moeller), Hutchinson, Port of Singapore Authority and of course our very own P&O Ports. It is clear that there is increasing cross-ownership and corporate networking between the world's international shipowners and port operations.

"It is essential we understand that without the capacity to build a strong international resource and organisational structure we will be picked off one country at a time in the stevedoring industry. And seafaring will eventually be a job only for Third World workers," said Paddy Crumlin.

Patrick Shipping

MUA crew on the Searoad Tamar and Searoad Mersey are taking industrial action against Patrick Shipping after a breakdown in enterprise agreement negotiations.

At issue is the company move to axe the chief caterer and the self- mooring system.

Victorian Assistant Branch Secretary Dave Cushion and Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman have been leading negotiations with Patrick's Shipping for several months but the company has refused to compromise.

"Patrick is being unreasonable," said Mick Doleman. "The crew say that what they want is totally unworkable." Members will be kept informed as circumstances unfold.

RTS Pioneer

Australian seafarers will crew the Pioneer bauxite vessel sailing between Weipa and Comalco.

Assistant National Secretary Rick Newlyn and Sth Qld Branch Secretary Mick Carr met with ASP Ship Management in Gladstone in April to negotiate the agreement after inspecting the vessel at sea.

"She will be hard work, with plenty of maintenance required," said Rick Newlyn. "But she is a welcome initiative at a time when the Howard Government is doing everything it can to destroy Australian shipping."

The new agreement is proving difficult because the vessel hasn't got an unmanned machinery space (UMS) and requires a 24 hour long engineering watch.

Cabotage debate

The outcome of the Productivity Commission report is both good and bad. On one hand the Commission considers the maintenance of cabotage to be obstructing the cheapest trade available to Australian shippers. On the other it has taken on board the MUA submission that any review into cabotage should take into consideration all aspects of intermodal transport and include security issues.

The Commission's comments in relation to cabotage concluded with:

"Such feedback has strengthened the Commission's view that a wider review of coastal shipping would have important advantages over a narrower assessment of cabotage restrictions alone. And, while some of the impediments to better outcomes in the industry could be pursued through a self-contained reform program, coastal shipping is an integral component of the national freight transport system. Hence, to ensure that reform efforts in the industry are compatible with achieving competitive neutrality across transport modes, those reforms would be better pursued as part of the nationally coordinated and multi-modal approach to freight transport reforms which the commission is proposing."

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and ITF Australia Coordinator Dean Summers are confident that the union's economic, security and employment arguments are sustainable.

"We are also satisfied that our submission has been successful," said Paddy Crumlin. "We have avoided a narrow and politically motivated review into the Australian coastal maritime industry."

Offshore Security

The Federal Government announced the Maritime Transport Security Act Amendments Bill at an offshore oil and gas industry meeting attended by Dean Summers in Perth in April.

They have done this without any union input or consultation. As a result, the Bill is flawed and is not consistent with some articles of the international ISPS convention.

The rights of access for welfare and labour organisations have been left out and many other areas need to be brought into line with existing maritime security legislation.

Globalisation Run Amok

A report following the murder of a union official in El Salvador has exposed a gross abuse of labour and human rights by multinational shipping operator Maersk.

The Maritime Union of Australia joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, The Danish General Workers' Union, the AFL-CIO (US labour federation), Central American Solidarity Centre and the International Transport Workers' Federation in investigating conditions of truck drivers and port workers in El Salvador - a mission started by murdered US Teamster's organiser Gilberto Soto.

Soto was gunned down outside his mothers' home four days into his investigation.

The damning report - Globalisation Run Amok - compiled by photo journalist David Bacon, who accompanied the delegation, was released inDenmark in May is available on the MUA website.

Full report next MWJ