New union leadership team

Ian Bray

Deputy National Secretary Jim Tannock,
64, and Assistant National Secretary Rick
Newlyn, 57, are both retiring at year’s end
after a long and distinguished contribution
to the union.
Warren Smith, 43, and Ian Bray, 41, take
their places in the national team as
assistant national secretaries. Warren
Smith leaves his position of Sydney
Branch Secretary and Ian Bray moves
from WA Assistant Branch Secretary.
A special executive meeting held in Sydney
in July recommended the two branch
officials for national office and decided to
recognise the outstanding contributions of
both retiring officials – as rank and file
members, elected delegates and full time
officials.
“Both Jim and Rick have represented the
union at the highest levels and are
respected for their long and principled
service to the labour movement both in
Australia and internationally,” said
National Secretary Paddy Crumlin.
Both will continue their association with
the union and remain available to
support the union and membership when
needed.
Under union rules the executive
recommends the casual vacancies for the
positions until the next union elections in
2011. A special national council convened
on August 20 endorsed the changes.
The November council dinner will be in
their honour to mark their retirement on
November 5, with invitations going out
to international guests and among the
broad Australian labour movement.
Meanwhile Mick Doleman has moved up
to the position of deputy national
secretary. And both WA and Sydney branch have filled the vacuum with local leadership changes.
Assistant Sydney Branch Secretary Paul McAleer has
moved to the top post in Sydney with
veteran seafarer and union activist Joe
Deakin coming in as assistant branch
secretary.
A reshuffle in the West sees
long time Deputy Branch Secretary
Keith McCorriston moving to the ITF
inspectorate and Adrian White, ITF
inspector moving to the deputy position.
Branch organiser Will Tracey has been
appointed assistant branch secretary.
Independent of these leadership changes
Les (PigDog) Rayward is retiring as
SQld assistant branch secretary to be
replaced by Tony Austin, a wharfie from
DP World, Fishermen’s Island.
All branch appointments were made by
national council following
recommendations from the relevant
branch committee of rank and file of the
branch executive officers.

NEVER ALONE

WARREN SMITH, 43, comes to MUA
HQ after leading the Sydney Branch as
secretary for two years, and a further four
years as assistant branch secretary. He has
spent 20 years in the maritime industry,
working as a wharfie before being elected
to office.
Warren has a long history of political and
union activism, learning many skills on
the Patrick picket during the 1998
waterfront war. He has also led major
shipping disputes on the ground including
the Stolt Australia (Hobart, 2006) and the
Triton (Darwin, 2008).
As branch secretary he played a key role in
supporting the MUA film unit and taking
charge of the Hungry Mile campaign,
developing high levels of communication
through workers’ film, press and radio,
while developing a strong branch policy of
rank and file empowerment, building
delegate structures and empowering job
site committees.
“I come to the job with an absolute
commitment to work with branches and
delegates,” said Warren. “The branch has
been part of many successful EBA
negotiations across all areas of our industry.
“We have always involved the rank and
file in our negotiations and believe that
the union cannot do otherwise. It is
paramount that the union gets it right
industrially. We need to ensure the bread
and butter issues are fixed to allow us to
concentrate on expanding the power and
influence of the union.”
As branch secretary Warren also
continued the union tradition of
supporting causes at home and abroad,
from Aboriginal rights to workers’ rights
in Colombia and Cuba to name a few.
“Maintaining solidarity between workers
and unions both nationally and
internationally is vitally important,” he
said. “We can’t win alone. Some may
think the MUA is bullet proof and
capable of withstanding the onslaught of
whatever force takes us on. But while we
are one of the most organised and capable
unions, we cannot win alone. A single
union against the odds of international
capital just can’t win. Every major blue,
whether Patrick’s 98 or the Triton 11, has
been linked to international solidarity.
“In defending our own we have to work
to build both worker and community
support at home at the same time
strengthening global solidarity and the
international working class movement
abroad. The history of our international
work is that it delivers.”
Warren points to the lessons of 1998,
turning workers’ pickets into community
assemblies on the ground, while calling
on worldwide support on the world stage
through the ITF.
“The ILWU role in Los Angeles with the
Columbus Canada was a determining
factor in the Patrick dispute as was the
ITF role in influencing the end of the
scab operation in Dubai. Support from
the UK/Dutch union Nautilus was a
determining factor in the battle of the
Triton where MUA crew members sat in
as Gardline tried to replace them.”
As assistant national secretary Warren will
be responsible for POAGs, Toll
Stevedoring and Shipping, CSL, INCO,
DP World Terminals, AAT, Teekay, Darwin
(Port Authority/Perkins shipyard), Skilled,
NSS and port authorities, Capital
Stevedores in Tasmania - a set of key
industrial responsibilities with a focus on
blue water and stevedoring.
“In the industrial areas I have responsibility
for it will be my goal to have strong and
independent committees and delegate
structures set up that can strengthen the
operation of the union in the workplace.
Union control of the workplace comes from
sound delegate structures that send the
message loudly and clearly to the bosses
that our union is run from the bottom up
and the delegates and committees aren’t to
be messed with. Bosses need to know they
have to deal with the workers and there’s no
knocking on the back door looking for an
easy fix if the workers aren’t treated with
respect and dignity on the job.
Warren will also lead the national office
organising strategy team.
““It’s about a strategic and organised
approach,” he said. “The
inherent responsibility of the organising
team is to oversee an organising culture
in the union, implement organising
campaigns, heighten and develop focus on
the organising model, thereby
strengthening the membership and the
power of the union.
“We have to have 100 per cent strength so
the boss can’t take advantage of us and get
over us at all. We need to wage
campaigns to improve the standard of
living of members and job safety. This
approach needs to be developed in all our
areas of work, building union capacity to
fight and win.”
Warren said his many years working in
bulk and general stevedoring and in the
Port Botany terminal gives him first hand
experience of how hard and incredibly
dangerous work on the waterfront can be.
“You don’t get a second chance if you are
hit by a container or a big machine,” he
said. “It’s the responsibility of the union to
make sure every worker comes home to
his or her family each shift.”

EMPOWERMENT

IAN BRAY, 41, comes to office after six
years working as a branch official, 19 years
seafaring in both offshore and blue water
including scientific research vessels and a lot
under his belt.
He brings with him to MUA HQ
organising skills honed in the west, which
helped the branch more than double in size
to become the union’s biggest in numbers in
recent years.
Ian will be responsible for diving, the
MUA/AWU, Hydrocarbon Alliance,
FPSOs, Patrick Bulk & General, Rio Tinto,
ASP, towage, dredging, P&O, maritime,
coal terminals and port authorities.
“In the areas I’ve got responsibility for it’s
about assisting the rank and file and the
branches. It’s about empowering members
through organising and delivering outcomes
based on well-developed strategy.
“Rank and file empowerment has been a
strong point of leadership in WA. We’ve
got good industrial outcomes as well as
good political outcomes in the state.
Empowerment makes it a lot easier to go in
and assist workers identify the virtues of the
union, the collective and how that benefits
the individual and their families.
“Organising gets you in the door, but you
still have to assist workers and members to
deliver on the outcomes that they think are
important to them and ensure the rank and
file get their say.
“We worked hard to rebuild trust in the
offshore diving industry and ROV. We
listened to the members, empowered them
and organised them in a collective. They
got the best EBA they’ve ever had.
“With the remote offshore vehicle
operators it was the same thing. They
were completely unorganised in the
offshore industry. Union density was close
to zero. We built on the back of the diving
campaign. It enhanced the union’s
reputation and we used that to engage
ROV workers into a collective in the space
of four months. Soon after this their
wages increased 30-50 per cent within a
matter of months.
“The next divers’ EBA will concentrate on
maintaining what we have achieved and
working to improve living and working
conditions. There are only about 200 in
ROV but they are a highly-skilled
workforce. Strategically this gives the union
the potential to be a major influence in
anything subsea.
“I hope to implement the branch
organising success nationally and help
grow the union, using my experience from
the ground level to national. I’ll be helping
the branches get better outcomes with
their campaigns and better positioning the
union going forward.”
On Indigenous affairs: “We have achieved
some really good mutual outcomes by
having a strong relationship with
indigenous communities up the west coast.
And it’s a relationship that can be expanded
nationally. What makes it work is respect.
It’s not just about recruiting the indigenous
workers into a union; it’s about where they
are and what they need. The real goal for us
is to establish a level of trust whereby the
traditional land owners don’t sign off with
government or companies on development
projects unless there’s union labour and we
don’t sign off unless their communities get
education, facilities, real training and real
jobs at the end of it – not training so they
end up with a few hundred gardeners’ jobs
in the community but real jobs, skilled jobs
that will offer ongoing skills to the
community. The development of a social
compact with traditional land owners could
be one of the most successful outcomes that
the union movement offers this generation
of workers.”
On MUA women: “Women are playing a
great role in our union. The WA experience
is that in two of Australia’s biggest tonnage
ports, Karratha and Port Hedland, women
feature strongly throughout the delegate
structure. Identifying and rectifying
women’s issues ultimately benefits all the
membership. Examples of this are
maternity/paternity leave and the
work/family balance. Women have assisted
in developing some great union policy and I
am really looking forward to working with
the committee in the future.”
On safety: “There’s plenty of work to be
done there after the complete undermining
and gutting of the safety authorities under
the Howard Government and the move to
self regulation. Every worker has right to
come home from the job to his or her
family.”
On MUA veterans: “The union is extremely
indebted to the contribution they made
during their working lives. They’ve retired
from the workforce, but not the struggle
and I look forward to working with them
and assisting them where I can.”