Global Talks

Round table, ITF delegates prepare for global negotiations

International shipowners agree to union endeavour for first world crew

The Maritime Union of Australia was host to top-level negotiations between some of the world's most powerful shipowners and trade union leaders in Sydney in May.

Talks during the week-long meetings launched the first round of the new global collective agreement between the International Transport Workers' Federation and peak global shipping companies represented by the Joint Negotiating Group (JNG). The agreement will cover 100,000 seafarers employed on just under 5000 Flag of Convenience ships worldwide.

MUA national secretary and ITF Vice President and international Dockers' Chair Paddy Crumlin, who co chaired the talks, said the key breakthrough in the first round of talks came when shipowners recognised as legitimate the union claim that seafarers from Europe, Japan, Australia and America should be included in trade between nations.

"How we arrive there is open for discussion," he said. "There's talk about developing some funding element that will make employing developed economy ratings (DER) more realisable."

The national secretary said there was no agreement so far on how to go about it.

"But there's general acceptance of the claim," he said. "A key focus is ensuring Australians are working in the expanding LNG trade."

In concert with this DER principle, the MUA and the Seafarers' International Union of North America announced a crew pact which would see both unions pushing for the employment of US and Australian crews in the LNG trade between both countries.

Other key issues addressed at the meeting were global security, the spread of Flag of Convenience shipping and the systemic rorting of the cabotage rules by the Australian government.

The talks also highlighted how employers on the global stage recognised the benefits of collective bargaining and respect for workers' rights.

"Shipping is a global industry that is turning its back on the Howard Government's WorkChoices model. Unlike the Australian government IR laws, the global agreement enshrines freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain."

Negotiations for the renewal of the agreement reached at the International Bargaining Forum (IBF) in Tokyo two years ago are part of a 50-year campaign against the flag of convenience system.

In the negotiations the ITF is pushing for a 10 per cent pay increase over two years, improved leave entitlements, for ships to be fitted with communications systems such as satellite email, shore leave for seafarers stuck on board ships in port, and adoption of the Seafarers' Bill of Rights (ILO Maritime Labour Convention).

"The negotiations are about establishing a system of wages and conditions that narrows the gap between workers from developing and developed nations, while at the same time providing jobs for Australian seafarers," said Paddy Crumlin. "They put us directly across the table with shipowners and manning companies. It enables the union to develop a direct relationship with shipowners who ply the Australian coast with FOC ships."

A 10 per cent rise spread over two years was agreed in 2005 and took crew costs under the 23-man "model" ship used in the IBF agreement to $50,787 per month.

Also in the IBF 2005 agreement was the ground-breaking dockers' clause guaranteeing shore-based work. It was this clause which was instrumental in resolving the Capo Noli dispute in Port Kembla in June (see opposite).

Shipowners at the Sydney talks want to limit the wage rise to 3 per cent for the bench, have the dues they pay to unions in countries of beneficial ownership scrapped, and unions in labour-supply countries given a greater say in negotiations.

The Sydney meeting prepared the ground for the final round of talks in Geneva in September.

The ITF negotiating committee consists of Steve Cotton (Secretary of the Special Seafarers' Division) and is co-chaired by Paddy Crumlin (Chair of the Dockers'), Brian Orrell (Chair of the ITF Seafarers' section, General Secretary of Nautilus UK) and Nobuo Kayahara (Chair of the Joint Negotiating Group of the Shipowners and ISEG).

Forty ITF affiliates attended from India, Tanzania, Latvia, UK, Russia, Taiwan, US, Germany, the Philippines, Korea, Denmark, Japan, Argentina, Singapore, Canada, the Netherlands and Italy in addition to Steve Cotton, ITF Co-ordinator of the Maritime Sections, and ITF secretariat staff.

On the shipowners' side were the 25 shipowner representatives from Europe, Japan and Korea under the JNG made up of IMEC (International Mariners Employer Committee), ISEG (International Seafarers Employment Group) and the KSA (Korean Shipowners Association covering 4,000 ships worldwide) and 100 shipping companies from Europe, Russia, India and Asia.

"The importance of the IBF process for FOC vessels was demonstrated by the Murdoch press unrelentingly hammering the ALP Conference decision in support of cabotage and the tightening of the permit system," said Paddy Crumlin. "The negotiations provided the opportunity for the union to demonstrate the importance of Australia to the world shipping industry and to refute once and for all the infamous assertion by the then Minister for Transport John Anderson that Australia is a shipper nation, not a shipping nation.

" The hysteria by The Australian newspaper in particular demonstrates the great fear in corporate circles that there may be a change in government later this year."