May-Jun 2008

The Dubai Debacle

The year ended with a proverbial bang on the Australian waterfront. On December 3 the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Maritime Union of Australia exposed that a group of Sandline-style mercenaries were flying to Dubai to train as wharfies.

Two former SAS commandos were in charge of the operation Peter Kilfoyle and Mike Wells. Among the 70 recruits were serving members and former members of the military. A mysterious Australian company known as International Port Services Training Group Pty Ltd was behind the training with the shadowy $20 shelf company Fynwest Pty Ltd recruiting and employing the mercenaries. The Hong Kong based company channelling funds for the retraining was Container Management Services.

The story was dynamite, making headlines for weeks. It was a public relations disaster for Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith. He said so himself.

It all came to light when the union got a tip off that an advertisement in The Army newspaper (November 13, 1997) was seeking applicants for 'jobs' in Perth, Melbourne Sydney and Brisbane.

Four people involved in the Dubai exercise, at least one recruit,contacted MUA National Secretary John Coombs to blow the whistle on Fynwest.

Then a copy of an individual employment contract found its way to the union rooms. It spelt out the work was in the stevedoring industry. Salaries ranged from $46,000-$60,000, with a $25,000 hardship bonus, taking their wages above the current earnings of most MUA wharfies.

After a weeks leave the mercenaries would then be back on the job training 120-180 others at a site in NSW Under cover: "This will entail you being 'locked in' for the periodof training which will be conducted over threeshifts, 24 hours per day,seven days per week for three weeks."

Sleeping on stretchers in a 'hangar' type building attention from the locals.

Operations were scheduled for mid-March. MUA National Secretary John Coombs expressed shock in response to the information.

"If it's all true, and the Government is involved, it would be a national scandal," he said.

ACTU Assistant Secretary Greg Combet said: "I certainly hope that paramilitary operations like this would never be contemplated in Australia... The secret plan has the potential to cause explosive industrial disputation. It is categorically un-Australian, and will be met with horror."

The ACTU/union announced the flight plans and an eager media huddle filmed the mercenaries at their hotel and boarding their flight.

On the December 10 unions threatened to delay a flight United Arab Emirates ambassador was boarding. The Transport Workers' Union and the Australian Services Union also delayed the flight of a third contingent of trainees, believed to be serving and retired army personnel who left Perth the same day.

According to legal advice obtained by the Australian Council for Trade Unions (ACTU) Australian Defence Force officers who granted leave to soldiers to take jobs with Fynwest, the company set up to run the Dubai training scheme, acted unlawfully.

The Minister for Defence Ian McLachlan denied any knowledge of involvement in the scheme. However the Government did admit it would not oppose the use of mercenaries on the Australian waterfront ('Howard backs hired guns', The Canberra Times, December 12). And Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett supported the initiative, saying it was a good idea.

In parliament the Government faced a barrage of questions by denying any knowledge of the plan. PM Howard three times refused to deny pre-knowledge. The Government has yet to answer if any public funds have been used to finance the operation and if any of the consultants reports to the Government concerning the waterfront, particularly the ACIL Report and the reports associated with Dr Webster or Mr Houlihan (consultants to Mr Reith), canvas such plans.

Why Dubai?

Slap bang in the Arabian Gulf, Dubai is a free trade zone and an industrial free-for-all. Foreign workers predominate and trade unions are outlawed. Deportation awaits those who dare to organise one.

Who's paying?

It is believed that the $3 million training contract included an upfront payment of $1.5 million into a trust-guarantee account. This amount was in addition to an estimated $500,000 in transportation costs. Cost for the whole operations is estimated upwards of $30 million. According to documents leaked by Fynwest directors to the Melbourne Age, the initial bill was paid by Patrick.

Why did it fail?

The International Transport Worker' Federation threatened to blockade Dubai, and the exercise was abandoned ... for the time being.

On December 14 the union movement claimed a victory after the United Arab Emirates announced that the working visas of Australian army personnel training in Dubai as stevedores had been cancelled.

The next day Fynwest director Mike Wells told the media that his company would talk to the National Farmers' Federation about the prospect of training workers for an alternative non-union port if the NFF went ahead with the mooted idea (Herald Sun, December 15, The Age, December 14, 1997).

Meanwhile five would-be recruits, all with military backgrounds, went to the Opposition. They were told they would work at the Port of Melbourne in April when a major waterfront dispute was planned. They said Michael Wells had told a meeting of recruits they would work in wharf areas surrounded by barbed wire,patrolled by guards armed with batons, small firearms and dogs. Ex-navy divers would monitor the water. They were assured of support at the "highest levels".

As well, they claimed a recruitment meeting had been conducted by an organiser of the Dubai venture Mike Wells on the premisesof 2 Commando Company in Melbourne. A spokesman for the Australian Defence Forces said no recruitment meeting had occurred in Melbourne. But added the Mike Wells was a member of the Commando Association which did hold meetings at the premises.

Recruiting sessions had been told there would be "triple retaliation" against any union officials or others who tried to interfere with their work.

The plan appeared to have the support of the state government and the Melbourne Port Corporation. Chief executive of the Melbourne Port Corporation, Mr Jeffrey Gilbert, told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia that Melbourne would contract a third operator only weeks earlier. This was to make up for the failure to reach agreement with US multinational OCCL. The OCCL terminal fell through when its management reached agreement to use MUA labour, two existing stevedores Patrick and P&O fought a new entrant in the courts and the port authority could not reach agreement over leases.

Wells admitted the Dubai plan was aimed at breaking union power on the docks and vowed to try again to take on the Maritime Union (The Age, December 18). In fact he foreshadowed the NFF operation at Webb Dock.

War on the Waterfront articles

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