Worker management to solve ferry crisis

MUA calls for Govt to give workers managing role in getting Sydney Ferries back on course

Not only did the MUA submission to the Walker inquiry into Sydney Ferries argue against privatisation the it proposed worker participation in the governance and management of the service as vital to its success.

"It's important to consider the maintenance of core labour standards," MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said when speaking to the submission at the inquiry in July. "And the involvement and participation of the workforce in decision making. I think that has already been canvassed in connection between ferry masters and engineers and the appropriate design of this quite unique service."

The national secretary said the workforce had invaluable corporate knowledge, skills and commitment.

"We are part of the solution and we want to be considered as part of the solution," he said. "We want to be customer-focused and, in fact, see the job stability and the future interests of the workers and their families in being well trained and qualified, to take great pride in Sydney Ferries."

The national secretary also stressed the role ferries play in reducing urban congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and security threats.

Investing in public harbour transport, he said, reduces the social dislocation of road, tollway and tunnel developments.

"Ferries emit the lowest greenhouse emissions on a per kilometre travelled basis for any public transport," said Paddy Crumlin, calling for a green compact with the Sydney community and Sydney commuters.

The MUA argued that any money invested in ferries saved the government outlay on roads.

"Ferries reduce the need for new road infrastructure," he said. "Look at Manly to the city, some of the problems there with the Spit Bridge - is there going to be a new tunnel?"

The union is opposed to any form of privatisation of the ferries, citing London trains as a prime example how privatisation can go wrong.

"Public sector partnerships with the private sector have almost always failed to transfer risk to the private sector," he said. "In the UK with the privatisation of trains there are more public subsidies being pumped into the privatised railways in the UK than were previously invested in nationalised British Railways."

The union submission pointed out overall profits of UK train operators soared by 20 per cent in 2004 to nearly 300 million pounds. The biggest company, National Express, registered a massive 76 per cent increase in profits from 2003 to 2004. Every year, £800m is taken out of the industry as returns to lenders and investors, representing a total leakage of £6b since 1996.

"In 1989/1990, the government in the UK invested £563m in the publicly owned British Railways," said Paddy Crumlin. "Following privatisation, this figure nearly quadrupled to £1.8b."

He said the price of standard rail tickets has increased by up to three times. PPP on the underground has proved costly and complicated.

"Government spending on the tube has risen by more than 20-fold, from £44.1m in 1997 to £1.48bin 2004 and 2005," he said. "Not only that, negotiations over the extraordinarily complex 135 volumes and 28,000 pages of contract, including service contract, cost the taxpayer 455 million pounds in lawyer and consultant fees. Not a good model."

The union argument was reinforced by Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sydney, Frank Stilwell.

The professor has studied public/private partnerships and how to best provide not just for transport needs but also for a good quality of life in cities, including social justice and ecological sustainability.

"Are we talking about a rate of return to a private provider in terms of maximising profits, or are we talking about some broader social rate of return," he asked. "We do have to take account of the social rate of return rather than a narrow market model."

Professor Stilwell warned of the risks of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) as seen with the "absolutely disastrous" Cross City Tunnel and

Airport Rail Link. "Where you are providing essential public services and the private provider collapses, the government picks up the tab every time," he said, warning that bodies such as Macquarie Bank are more interested in generating revenues to third parties, such as the stock market.

"PPPs involve cherry picking of services," he said. "There's more pressure for cost cutting. It may involve asset stripping - as, for example, the ship repair yards in Mort Bay, Balmain. It is very valuable real estate. It doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see that the private proprietor might see that they could get a better return by using that for high-rise luxury apartment waterfront dwelling than for providing ship repair services."

In a further submission the union put forward further arguments against privatising the service.

The national secretary and Sydney Deputy Branch Secretary Glen Wood were called before the inquiry again in August and were placed under oath to answer a number of questions in relations to alleged illegal industrial action, the relationship between the union and the employers and the views of the union on privatisation partly or in full. The National Secretary reiterated the union's position that privatisation would not resolve long-term funding and public interest issues. The unions argued that clearer and more accountable roles needed to be developed for the board of Sydney Ferries, the share holding ministers, particularly the treasure and the portfolio minister. Many of the issues needing addressing in the service could be potentially sheeted home to the lack of transparency in this area of governance.

The two union submissions included the legal services of McNally Jones and the services of transport expert Professor Frank Stillwell.

The Sydney branch is working with the Transport Unions Federation and the Rail Tram Bus Union in a joint anti-privatisation campaign and has distributed 10,000 postcards addressed to Premier Morris Iemma. It will also be distributing "Don't privatise me" and "I'm not for sale" badges to MUA members on the ferries in coming weeks.

A report "Selling our future" in Sydney Branch newspaper Maritime Unity Paul McAleer, assistant secretary, spells out that privatisation would lead to job loss, attacks on wages and conditions, asset stripping, cutting corners on safety, deunionising the workforce, forced individual contracts and loss of services to the public.

"Capitalism has a voracious appetite for profit, it is its lifeblood," he wrote. "Privatisation is literally the selling off of publicly owned assets to private interests - these assets were controlled by the government and run for the people and arguably in the interest of the people."

A full transcript of National Secretary Paddy Crumlin's testimony to the inquiry can be downloaded from the website.