Maritime Workers Journal, Winter 2022 by Maritime Union Of Australia

150YRS OF STRUGGLE: Union commemorations get underway p2 WATERFRONT WINS: Workers’ victories at Qube and Patrick p14 TUG OF WAR: Maersk rakes in billions while tug subsidiary Svitzer axes jobs and pay p16

THE MARITIME WORKERS’ JOURNAL

DODGY DEAL? Lib’s Moorebank tender under scrutiny p19

WINTER 2022

ALP SHIP POLICY LAUNCH Labor leader Albanese stands by Australian maritime workers and families p6

www.mua.org.au

CONTENTS 6 LABOR LAUNCH

ALP commits to strategic fleet

12 SHIP CARTELS

The real threat to our port productivity and supply chains

14 BIG WINS

unions victories on the waterfront at Qube and Patrick

16 ROGUE BOSS

Svitzer tug dispute hangs in the balance

26 OFFSHORE TRASH

Oil and gas majors made to clean up their act

34 150th ANNIVERSARY Union rolls out the red carpet as celebrations get under way

36 TRUE BLUE

New book traces the origins of international maritime worker solidarity in the Asia Pacific over a century

COVER: Labor leader Anthony Albanese with MUA comrades at the Strategic Fleet policy launch in Newcastle INSIDE COVER: Banners on display commemorating the unions 150th year

EDITOR IN CHIEF Paddy Crumlin DESIGN Louise@LX9Design.com PRINTER Spotpress

Maritime Workers’ Journal 365-375 Sussex Street Sydney NSW 2000 Contact: (02) 9267 9134 Fax: (02) 9261 3481 Email: journal@mua.org.au Website: http://www.mua.org.au MWJ reserves the right at all times to edit and/or reduce any articles or letters to be published. Publication No: 1235 For all story ideas, letters, obituaries, please email journal@mua.org.au

LOGGING ON

Logging on MUA - Here To Stay!

Our National Council in April coincided with the date 24 years ago that Patrick Stevedores sacked almost 2000 workers around Australia, and set their dogs and balaclava-clad enforcers on to the Australian waterfront. It was 7pm on April 7th, 1998 that bosses and the Howard-led Liberal Government of the day set off one of the nation’s longest and most bitter industrial disputes. The High Court later found that there was a probable criminal conspiracy against the union and its members by the government and the company. Today, two things mark this significant anniversary. Firstly, the commencement of a newly finalised Enterprise Agreement with Patrick Terminals -- which will deliver immediate, significant and ongoing pay rises and long-term job security for our members. This comes after two years of negotiation, dispute, and struggle in the face of a management team that had not learned the lessons of the past and wanted to cancel their entire workforce’s agreements and send them back to the Award. Reports abound of them and some other Stevedoring employers lobbying the federal government over the last two years to remove the industrial rights under the Fair Work Act afforded every other working Australian woman and man in the workplace. Secondly, the Australian Trade Union Institute has released an excellent historical resource for educating future generations about the social, economic and historical importance of the 1998 waterfront dispute. It includes some excellent historical footage from the MUA’s own archives, and is a timely reminder on the cusp of the 2022 Federal Election of the lengths a Liberal Government will go to on behalf of their big business backers.

Just as we did 24 years ago, the MUA stands resolutely defiant against these attacks by conservative political figures and their sponsors in the big end of town. We are armed with the facts, united by the courage and determination of our membership, and with the backing of unionised maritime and transport workers around the world. We will keep our essential domestic supply chains in Australian ownership and working transparently in the public interest of our nation during this time of massive upheaval and international dysfunction. We are on the cusp of a Federal Election. Mobilise and reach out to everyone you know to vote out Scott Morrison and his Government. This is the only way to secure your access to decent employment , secure jobs and a genuinely independent Australia where the rights of working Australians are always placed first in word and action. The union can assist you with the facts and anything you may need in the task. Contact your branch to join the campaign efforts locally.

Another Grubby Act

DP World advertises itself internationally as a progressive business concerned with social

and corporate responsibility that supports labour rights and works ‘in a responsible way that prioritises sustainability and impact on the people, communities and environment in which we operate’. The company now has serious questions to answer following the ruthless sacking of 800 seafarers at its subsidiary P&O Ferries in the UK. On March 17, in a strikingly similar act to what Australian Seaferers have been subjected to over decades, P&O Ferries fired 800 British-based seafarers with 30 minutes notice over a pre-recorded Zoom call. The company made the decision without any consultation with its workforce or their unions. The MUA, The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) are calling on DP World to engage in proper and transparent discussions with their maritime workforce and unions to repair the situation. The Rail and Maritime Union and Nautilus have been long term friends and brothers and sisters of Australian maritime workers. The former RMT general secretary Bob Crow was a particularly strident and militant supporter of our union throughout his working life and up to his premature death. He attended every quadrennial conference of our union www.mua.org.au

for many years making many friends as a true comrade and working-class internationalist. In the Zoom sacking, P&O Ferries told workers this was a “tough” decision, but it would “not be a viable business” without the changes. In fact, P&O Ferries’ owner DP World has made record revenue and profits throughout the pandemic, turning over $10.8bn in revenue and $1.2bn in profit last year, a 33% increase in profit compared with the previous year. The company has paid out $376.1 million in dividends to shareholders over the past two years alone. In another act reminiscent of what Australian Seafarers and maritime workers have come to expect from many of these multinational shipping and supply chain companies and the Australian government, a leaked memo has exposed that Ministers were informed of P&O Ferries’ intention to sack these workers the night it happened. The Conservative UK Government did nothing to stop it, reminiscent of the collusion between conservative government and bosses throughout the Australian waterfront and seafaring industries. The P&O debacle illustrates the pervasive cynicism and arrogance of many multinational supply chain and transport companies and their complete lack of attention to anything but their self-interest. The union has asked DPW Dockworkers worldwide in particular to bring the matter to their local management’s attention to deliver our complaint to the senior management of DP World in Dubai as part of the international campaign to restore those workers’ rights and employment.

Waterfront Productivity - the rap and not the crap

Amidst growing employer-militancy and contrary to their rhetoric of Fortress Australia, the now Morrisonled Liberal Government is using a Productivity Commission inquiry to ventilate misinformation and fake news to escalate an industrial and political crusade against the Maritime Union and its membership. Stevedoring employers have made submissions but have done so on the basis they are kept confidential. www.mua.org.au

“It is a disgrace that political failure of leadership allowed our shipping industry to be taken over by foreignflagged and foreignowned vessels...” Submissions like those from foreign shipowner lobby Shipping Australia are full of fake information, prejudice and elitist doggerel masking the fact that their companies use Australia to gouge profit, avoid taxation and exploit international crews many of whom were not repatriated during COVID. While they vilify Australian maritime workers they also defend their shipping monopolies and cartel conduct, which is exempt from Australian Consumer and Competition Law. They seek to further destroy national protections for an Australian domestic shipping industry to continue gouging obscene profits – in this they are led assertively by AP Moller Maersk and their towage company Svitzer Australia. The Maersk group posted a 23-billion-dollar profit last year off the back of the pandemic and all other shipping companies had similar results. Instead of trading blows in an inane public debate initiated by big business that pits the Australian community against a skilled and proud workforce, the Maritime Union seeks to reframe the debate as one about economic resilience, seaport productivity and the importance of Australia’s domestic supply chain security. The first step towards this is rebuilding our domestic shipping capacity. Labor gets it The union welcomes Labor’s plan to establish a Strategic Fleet of Australian flagged and crewed vessels to restore Australia’s domestic shipping sector and guarantee our national trading and shipping capacity in times of crisis or national disaster. The MUA has always believed that a vital element in Australia’s national security is a sovereign shipping capability, which is becoming even

more important as the international security situation in our region becomes less certain and our fuel reserves dwindle to less than 70 days’ capacity. Our lack of fuel security has been described as a “national security Achilles’ heel” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. It’s a disgraceful failure of political leadership that has allowed our shipping industry to be taken over by foreign-flagged and foreign-owned vessels with dubious safety standards, exploitative labour practices and little or no regulation. Scott Morrison was quick to blow his own trumpet over a plan to build a fleet of nuclear submarines by 2040 but re-establishing a national strategic fleet is an even more pressing issue that he has completely failed to act on. Climate change and the inevitable increase in weather-related disasters in Australia, the Pacific and SouthEast Asia require additional uplift and relief capacity to support our Defence forces, while fuel security is vital to the economic and social needs of our nation and it’s reckless in the extreme to be reliant on foreign-flagged and foreign owned shipping to maintain our fuel supply. At the moment, however, even the Royal Australian Navy is ringing the alarm bell about their access to adequate fuel reserves. With the continuing and escalating fears of public security, economic resilience and long term industry planning and growth required to deliver on an Australian Strategic Fleet, it is essential that the outcome of this election sweeps away the political failures of the past in this essential area once and for all. The Labor policy platform does that. Anthony Albanese has done that. Labor’s Australian Shipping policy should be adopted as a bipartisan commitment by securing and embedding it in legislation now, before the election, while the great and sustained lie being driven by the international shipping industry’s sabotage of this key and fundamental protection of our domestic economy must be exposed once and for all. Protect the truth and our jobs and future. Vote for an Albanese Labor government and get everyone you know to do the same directly or via preferences on Election Day. •

AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING

Strategic fleet When the Labor leader came to Newcastle to relaunch a policy for a strategic fleet three generations of maritime workers were there to welcome him

s Labor leader Anthony Albanese stood in an Akubra under the glaring sun at Newcastle Bulk Liquids Berth Mayfield 7, on January 4, maritime workers young and old were there to greet him. Alongside Catherine King, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development and local member Sharon Claydon, stood Gordon Wilson, 90, son Colin and grandson Jordan – representing three generations of seafarers. Also present were Ben Sirasch, a local seafarer sacked at sea from the MV Mariloula and local MUA member

Liam Kelly. Wharfie Angela Moore, from Australian Stevedores, brought her daughter, Mia proudly wearing a union t-shirt and partner Dana Crampton, marine engineer on the David Allan port dredge. Fred Krausert, president of the MUA vets stood tall alongside Branch Secretary Glen Williams, Assistant National Secretary Jamie Newlyn, National Officer Mich-Elle Myers and tug worker Anthony Andrews. “Everyone here was pretty excited,” said Glen Williams. “We’ve seen ship after ship after ship go off the coast due to the abuse of the coastal permit system. It was good to hear a plan to

get Australian flagged, crewed and owned vessels back.” Williams said the timing of the preelection announcement was critical. “The world is in crisis,” he said. “With war in Ukraine and no Australian tankers or refineries available the price of fuel could go through the roof. The whole supply chain is in crisis. The lack of an Australian fleet is a glaring hole in our national security.” The Labor leader confirmed his commitment to a strategic fleet first announced by the then opposition leader Bill Shorten on board the Victorian Reliance II in Melbourne www.mua.org.au

in February 2019. It was just before the last national election which few expected Labor to lose. Albanese said the government “seems to have sat back and watched while foreign crews have been marched onto ships, as Australian workers have been sacked, and the Australian flag has been replaced.” “There are other issues as well, of course,” he added. “All of the incidents around Australia’s coasts that have involved, potentially, environmental disasters, including on the reef, have all involved foreign flagged ships.” “Australian seafarers, with those skills and that local knowledge, understand the coast. They understand our ports. They understand how to work around the activity in order to ensure protection of the natural environment here as well.” But there will be no champagne over the bow of the strategy without a change of government. “Albo’s Strategic Fleet announcement will continue the unfinished business of the last Federal Labor Government,” tweeted Jamie Newlyn. “But it will have no chance of success if we don’t fight to elect a Labor Government.” In his previous role as transport minister under the Rudd/Gillard Labor

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governments, Albanese had worked with the union and industry to revamp the Navigation Act and revitalise Australian flagged and crewed shipping. Albanese told National Council in November last year he considers the job unfinished business. The announcement of Labor’s shipping policy in January was welcomed by the union. In a media release MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin lauded the decision to restore Australia’s domestic shipping sector and guarantee our national trading and shipping capacity in times of crisis or national disaster. As an island nation, Australia has always depended on coastal and international shipping, the statement read. “But under successive Liberal Prime Ministers the Coalition Government has failed the nation by allowing our domestic maritime capability to be eroded to the point where our supply chains are held totally hostage to decision-making by international shipping cartels and other countries’ political leaders.” If a Labor government is elected, cabotage, a legislative instrument restricting the operation of coastal trading to locally

“Successive Liberal governments have failed the nation” Paddy Crumlin

registered or operated ships will be back in force. “When it comes to maintaining essential maritime supply lines to this country, we cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage to international shippers whose priorities lie elsewhere” Crumlin said. “Scott Morrison was quick to blow his own trumpet over the plan to build a fleet of nuclear submarines by 2040, but re-establishing a national strategic fleet is an even more pressing issue that he has completely failed to act on.” The union highlighted successive Coalition governments’ indifference to safety standards and modern-day slaves who crew many ships trading with Australia. • See ALP policy in full overleaf.

AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING

Labor’s plan for a

Strategic fleet Full text of the ALP policy position published January 3, 2022

n Albanese Labor Government will strengthen Australia’s economic sovereignty and national security by rebuilding an independent Strategic Fleet to secure our ongoing access to fuel supplies and other essential imports. More than most nations, Australia is dependent on seaborne trade. Shipping accounts for 90 per cent of the international goods trade but 99 per cent of our imports and exports of goods, including fuel. Despite this, Australia is now in a situation where less than half a per cent of our seaborne trade is carried by Australian ships, forcing us to reply on foreign governments and companies for our essential imports. In times of conflict and crisis, our economic sovereignty and national security are dependent on Australian seafarers working on Australian ships. Protecting and growing Australia’s

maritime sector and seafaring workforce is vital to our economic sovereignty and national security. That’s why an Albanese Labor Government will protect Australia and rebuild our strategic fleet. This announcement forms a part of Labor’s plan for a Future Made in Australia, creating jobs and building industries. Other elements of this plan include the National Reconstruction Fund, the National Rail Manufacturing Plan and the Defence Industry Development Strategy.

What’s the problem?

Over the past 30 years, the number of Australian-flagged vessels has shrunk from 100 to less than 20 – and it is in our national interest to change that. For the past eight years the MorrisonJoyce Government has stood idle as large multinationals dumped

3 Generations of Australian seafarers: Gordon Wilson, 90, son Colin and grandson Jordan alongside Albanese

Australian flagged and crewed vessels so they could hire overseas crews. This has destroyed the jobs of Australian seafarers and created a situation where none of the vessels our nation relies upon to deliver its essential supplies of crude oil, aviation fuel and diesel are registered in this country or crewed by Australians. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in our supply chains and highlighted our current dependence on foreign suppliers and transporters for our key commodities. The sorry episode of the MV Portland in 2016 was emblematic of the Coalition’s undermining of Australian shipping and Australian seafarers and has had a lasting impact on the industry. The loss of Australian fuel refining capabilities – prompting the Coalition to inject up to $2billion into the industry to guarantee sovereign refining capability, albeit for only a few years – further underscores the importance of rebuilding a sovereign shipping capability to secure our supply chains. The pandemic has shown us how vulnerable supply chains can be to external events, while the risk of global or regional conflict leaves us vulnerable to the actions of foreign powers. Without a strategic fleet, Australia’s essential supply lines – including fuel imports – are vulnerable to the decisions of foreign governments or the whims of international shipping companies. With 99 per cent of our imports coming by sea, it is essential that Australia has its own sovereign, independent maritime capability on which we can safely rely. www.mua.org.au

Labor’s Plan An Albanese Labor Government will enhance Australia’s economic sovereignty and national security by creating a Maritime Strategic Fleet to secure our access to fuel supplies and other critical resources, even in times of global instability. These vessels will be Australian flagged and Australian crewed. We expect the vessels will be privately owned and operated on a commercial basis, they will be available for requisition by the Defence Forces in times of national need, whether that be natural disaster or times of conflict. As a first step towards establishing a strategic fleet, an incoming Albanese Labor Government will appoint a Taskforce to guide it on the establishment of the Fleet as quickly as possible. The Fleet is likely to include up to a dozen vessels including tankers, cargo, container and roll-on-roll-off vessels. This Taskforce will include representatives from the shipping industry, major charterers, unions, Australian

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business representatives and the Department of Defence. An Albanese Labor government will act immediately to close loopholes in the existing regulatory framework to help rebuild Australian shipping. The Taskforce will also advise on how best to enforce existing coastal shipping laws and what legislative or regulatory reforms are necessary to reinvigorate Australian shipping.

Investment in our plan

An Albanese Labor Government will establish a taskforce – including representatives from the shipping industry, unions, business and the Department of Defence – that will provide advice on the composition of the fleet and any public support required. We expect that the fleet will be privately owned and commercially operated with some support from the Government. This will ensure that in times of national crisis or disaster there are Australian flagged and crewed ships ready to assist. •

Labor leader Anthony Albanese highlighted Labor’s commitment to create an Australian crewed and flagged Strategic Fleet in his budget reply speech in Parliament on March 30. It was, in his own words “the first ever mention of shipping in a budget speech. “I believe in it and I will deliver,” he later texted the union. See the clip on MUA FaceBook https://fb.watch/ c63npPygH0/

Below: Albanese stands by sacked seafarers Ben Sirasch and Liam Kelly

Ben Sirasch “I was sacked on the BHP ship MV Mariloula and replaced by a crew of exploited foreign labour. We were sacked from an Australian ship that had been carrying Australian cargo for decades. I am very happy that Albo and the Labor Party are going to close these loopholes – these are our jobs.”

Ange Moore (MUA) & Dana Crampton (AIMPE) “Albo’s

announcement of a strategic Australian fleet goes beyond job opportunities. For us, it’s about pride in being a skilled seafarer on our coast, and delivering home grown expertise for our country. Our daughter now has a chance to be part of that tradition, a very exciting prospect!”

www.mua.org.au

Alex Smith

“I sailed on Australia’s last fuel ship British Fidelity. Our crew was sacked and replaced with an exploited foreign crew. They now sail OUR fuels around OUR coast. Virtually all of Australia’s fuel is imported and transported by foreign crews. Labor’s Strategic Fleet will ensure we take back control of our coast and provide safe and secure delivery of our cargoes.”

Liam Kelly “As a young 4th generation

seafarer, it gives me hope knowing that Albo and Labor’s commitment to a strategic fleet of Australian ships would breathe life back into our domestic shipping industry.”

Anthony Andrews “As the

system stands right now, we don’t even have the option to compete for work against the low paid and often poorly trained foreign workforce currently employed on our coastal highways. We’ve been completely shut out. Australian men and women deserve the right to be employed in their own country. Only a Labor government has ever been willing to make that commitment to Australian seafarers.”

www.mua.org.au

SHIPPING

SHIPPING MONOPOLIES JEOPARDISE

AUSTRALIAN TRADE Australia must loosen the grip of international shipping cartels on our supply chains

hipping cartels now dominate and jeopardise Australian trade. A rapid consolidation of the liner trade through mergers, takeovers and alliances has left the overwhelming majority of vessel cargo capacity in all Australian terminals in the hands of three major global alliances. Freight prices from China to Australia alone have more than doubled. So concludes the Maritime Union submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia’s maritime logistics. The union submission recommends a strategic fleet and renewed domestic shipping capacity so as to free Australian importers and consumers from the grip of international shipping cartels. “The greed and avarice of the shipowners who have been

going through a process of monopolisation and price gouging has resulted in an under capacity in shipping services and huge profits,” national officers reported to monthly meetings in February. “To demonstrate the obscene levels of monopolisation at the root of supply chain issues, Australia in 1996 had eight shipping lines to choose from. By 2020 it was down to three,” they reported. It is not just the union that is highlighting the shipping cartel issue. Organisations such as the Freight and Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Export Council of Australia clearly identify price gouging as the top concern in maritime logistics. Representatives of international shipping, however, blame the unions. “The Morrison Government called

for the Productivity Commission inquiry in December 2021 during a supply chain crunch caused by the short-sighted ineptitude of Scott Morrison’s response to the Omicron wave of Covid-19,” Paddy Crumlin said in a statement. “Predictably the inquiry attracted the usual union bashing from some industry players.” Crumlin stressed the MUA had for many years highlighted the structural, long-term decline of Australian shipping and its impacts for Australian businesses and consumers. He described our growing national dependence on services provided by international shipping cartels as perilous. The union submission contends Australia’s maritime logistics system and supply chains are

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struggling due to an over relevance on unregulated foreign-registered ships. Reliability is down and capacity is squeezed. Vessels are shifting out of the Australian trades to more lucrative European markets. Port calls are down 30-40 per cent in Adelaide and Fremantle. Shipments are often late. An earlier Productivity Commission report into Australian supply chains found ‘further investigation is required to ascertain whether the existing transport of essential goods is particularly vulnerable to disruption’. However, many in the maritime industry have expressed concern that the report did not adequately reflect how close these supply chains have come to failure, or the multiple human rights abuses that their operation depends upon. The union submits Australia should act against shipping cartels and regulate international shipping, by repealing Part X (exemption) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, which regulates international liner shipping of cargo travelling to or from Australia. The Australian government should establish a Regulator of International Shipping, the union submits. This would be a new, independent and strong statutory body to ensure international shipping operating to Australia meets all human rights and legal

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obligations and serves the needs of the Australian public. “International shipping lines also have a disproportionate political influence in Australia,” the MUA submission notes. “They continue to be exempted from normal competition laws. While obsessing about competition between container terminal operators, Australian governments have ignored the waves of reform of the regulation of international shipping around the world.” This began in 2002 when the OECD recommended that exemptions for rate-fixing container liner agreements be removed from national legislation.

PORT PRODUCTIVITY

At the same time the submission documents how container terminal productivity has dramatically improved over the last two decades. Container moves per hour are up from under 30 to over 60. Labour productivity too has risen from around 22 containers per hour in 1999 to around 50 per hour in 2021. Profit margins have soared for stevedoring companies, doubling from a 1995 baseline in 2021. In just the last financial year, total revenue rose from $1.43B to $1.66B. The submission uncovers failures in port automation that have lowered productivity in recent years, however. Automated stacking crane operations in the yard fail to keep pace with skilled workers in

“Australia in 1996 had eight shipping lines to choose from. By 2020 it was down to three.” quay cranes loading and unloading vessels. DPW data obtained by the union shows gross quay crane moves per hour in 2011 at 27 per hour compared to 24.2 in 2021 at automated operations. In a chilling expose the submission finds that only five of the top 50 world ports meet labour and human rights standards under ILO Core Labour Conventions. The full submission is available on the MUA website. •

ON THE WATERFRONT

PATRICK D E A L

B R O K E R E D

MUA victory after bitter two-year dispute

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Company Strike

At the outset management set out to strip away conditions and security of employment, Newlyn reported. They played hardball, walking away from negotiations and refusing to meet for nine months. www.mua.org.au

“Not only did we have to strategically apply action away from COVID breakouts, but we also had to contend with a militant employer and Chief Exaggeration Officer negotiating by media, telling blatant lies,” he said. “Management ultimately coopted the Liar from the Shire – the Prime Minister himself – to claim the Protected Industrial Action (You know his Fair Work laws) had a back log of 40 ships off Port Botany and that he would bring the military in. There was no backlog.” Patrick management then applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the agreement and drop back to the award. That would have done more harm to port productivity than any industrial action. The basic Award would force workers and the stevedoring company to observe traditional 35-hour work weeks during ordinary business hours

PATRICK

aterside workers at Patrick terminals in the four ports of Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle and Brisbane overwhelmingly voted up their hardfought enterprise agreement in March. Assistant Secretary Jamie Newlyn, who led the negotiations, said 98.5% of members at stop work meetings voted for the agreement. “Patrick tried to strip away our conditions, but at the end of the day despite federal government intervention and vilification in the media, worker solidarity won the day,” Newlyn said. The new agreement covering around 1000 waterside workers, provides industry leading wage increases – 4% the first year then 2.5% or the equivalent to the CPI, whichever is higher. This locks in financial security for members and their families against inflation. Newlyn said the new EA also provided a pathway for casual workers to move into permanent jobs. There is an added agreement of no forced redundancy due to automation. “From the Sydney perspective we defended our 2016 agreement and secured collective rights and dignity at work,” said branch secretary Paul Keating. “We’ve got a recruitment process for indigenous workers, women and unemployed maritime workers. Around 90% of the workforce in all four ports are on a salary.” Patrick Stevedores is the last of the five companies covering Australian container terminals to reach a union agreement – but not without putting up a fight. Negotiations were politicised, with the federal government weighing in behind the company. Shock jocks and the Murdoch press hammered the union with lies and fear mongering. But workers stood their ground with countless protected actions strategically rolled out around the country. From afar, dock unions around the world watched closely, while sending messages of solidarity.

Terminals updated their pricing structure for international shipping clients, with Landside Import Container Tariffs at some ports increasing by 20%. The parties were scheduled to attend the termination hearing in January. However, due to a senior legal counsel representing the MUA contracting Covid, the hearing was adjourned. “As fortune would have it the FWC recommended we have a conciliation to try and resolve the issue,” said Newlyn. “We accepted the recommendation given the threat of termination hanging over our heads.” National Secretary Paddy Crumlin joined the negotiations, Commissioner Riordan facilitated the discussions and the parties reached an in-principle agreement. Newlyn thanked the membership for their patience and willingness to take action and hold the line even

“At the end of the day we won due to the fundamental union framework – solidarity from our members.” JAMIE NEWLYN

rather than 24/7 operations. It would also have also halved workers’ wages and removed fatigue rosters. “If Patrick Terminals was successful in their application to abolish the existing Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, they would obliterate their own operational capacity by 80% at a time when the workforce was already impacted by COVID-19 isolation requirements and severe global supply chain bottlenecks,” said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. “This would be the ultimate example of cutting off your nose to spite your face,” he said in a media statement. “The Australian community cannot tolerate this kind of belligerent, aggressive and reckless approach to industrial relations at this critical time.” The union pointed to record profits for Patrick Terminals’ parent company and shareholders, massive executive bonuses and new or expanded contracts signed by major shipping clients despite the COVID-19 pandemic. On 6 January 2022, Patrick

during the difficult times of the Covid pandemic. “At the end of the day we won due to the fundamental union framework – solidarity from our members,” he said. Throughout the dispute the MUA enjoyed the solidarity of national and international unions and labour organisations. These included the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the International Dockers’ Council, the US dockworkers’ unions ILA and ILWU and FNV Netherlands. Newlyn also thanked the ITF Sydney Office and Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore who are at the ready to provide further support if and when required. “Terminating the agreement was all about stripping down wages and having a go at eliminating union influence in enterprise bargaining,” said Newlyn. “It was an absolute attack on workers. They know that Scott Morrison is on the way out and wanted to implement change before he goes.” •

INDUSTRIAL

ROGUE EMPLOYER Svitzer Towage attack workers

n January, Bosses at Svitzer Towage applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate the Enterprise Agreement after 2 years of bargaining in an act of militant employer brinksmanship that would ultimately strip their entire towage workforce of conditions of employment gained over decades. The controversial move came after workers voted down a non-union agreement that Svitzer circulated without the combined unions endorsement and was rejected by 98% of workers nationwide in December 2021. In a joint media release the MUA joined engineers’ and officers’ unions (AIMPE and AMOU) in calling out the action. Ditching the enterprise agreement and moving the entire workforce onto the award, would cut not just wages and conditions, but port productivity. It is the same gambit Patrick used, then abandoned, and is widely viewed in labour circles as a device to slash wages and conditions. Both Svitzer and Patrick are using the same legal firm with similar tactics. “The social and economic impacts for all Australians of Svitzer’s proposed action – and its consequences – cannot be overstated,” the joint union statement declared. “Svitzer must not be allowed to cut adrift their loyal workers at such a difficult time, simply to improve their company’s bottom line.” Sydney Deputy Branch Secretary Paul Garrett who is helming negotiations for the MUA said “Svitzer continually strive to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in these negotiations. When parties were only a few matters away, Svitzer dropped

their “Dirty 30” claims in attempt to open up the whole EBA and strip away towage conditions from their employees. Svitzers actions in the past two years are the practical example of the textbook definition in how not to conduct negotiations.” Svitzer’s attack on unions is not confined to Australia. Workers in the Netherlands and the UK are also under attack. International Transport Workers Federation unions representing workers across the Maersk supply chain addressed shareholders at the group’s AGM in Copenhagen on March 15. Svitzer is a global towage provider and a subsidiary of AP MollerMaersk. Maersk posted a record $24B profit in March – triple that of the previous year. “That is larger than the entire annual national budgets of Slovenia, Lithuania or Nigeria,” said ITF Maritime Coordinator Jacqueline Smith announced. While the company is taking a leading role in climate, its labour rights performance in towage and trucking violates its own values set out in its Sustainability Report 2021. “Maersk commits on paper to treating workers with respect and fairness including ‘constructive employee relations’. This can only exist by respecting the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which means actively engaging with trade unions,” she said. ITF Maersk Network Coordinator Kulsoom Jafri addressed AP Moller-Maersk shareholders at its AGM on how its subsidiary Svitzer

was undermining the rights, pay and conditions of workers in Australia, the Netherlands and the UK. In the Netherlands, the company has established a second corporate entity which is refusing to establish a collective agreement with unions. In the UK, Svitzer management has announced plans to freeze the pay of tug workers at Teesport, which has pushed tug staff to vote 100% in favour of strike action. The interventions of the ITF at the AP Moller - Maersk AGM went ignored when the Global CEO of Svitzer, Kasper Friis Nilaus visited Australia in March and refused to meet with its crews or the Maritime Unions to resolve the bargaining impasse. Assistant National Secretary Jamie Newlyn said “Kasper Friis Nilaus was met with a demonstration in Victoria when he attempted to visit the port for a tug boat river cruise. He left in no uncertain terms the disgust his Svitzer employees feel towards managers in Australia and Denmark” Union negotiations with Svitzer continue as MWJ goes to press. •

www.mua.org.au

“They attacked workers with 30 extra claims that would set the towage industry back 20 years.” JACK MCCABE

www.mua.org.au

INDUSTRIAL

Michaelia’s Mob Morrison government backing company anti-union push

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personally feel the government has given these multinationals the hurry up,” says tug delegate Bill Smith, Svitzer tugs. “Companies are lining up thinking this is our last chance to have a crack at the trade union movement before there’s a change of government. Even during the union negotiations at Fair Work, (The Minister for Industrial Relations Senator) Michaelia Cash had someone sitting in.” Svitzer, Newcastle. Svitzer, like Patrick, applied to Fair Work to cancel the union agreement during enterprise agreement negotiations and drop its workforce back on the award. (See opposite) A lot of other companies are waiting to see what happens. “If it works for the company the others will jump that’s for sure,” he says. A deckhand, Bill helps bring the bulk coal carriers, tankers and wheat ships safely into the harbour. “The port wouldn’t operate without the tugs,” he says. “We were out there all the way through CFMMEU national Secretary Covid. The port’s been humming along. Never Christy Cain addresses the Melbourne rally in support of missed a beat. We gave up a pay increase we were Svitzer workers in March entitled to because we wanted the company to see it through. Then we find out all the time they were raking in billions.” Bill says the workers know the company needs to be making money so everyone keeps their jobs. “But they are making more and more and still want to strip away our conditions,” he says. Negotiations dragged on for some time – all on zoom, nothing face to face. “I’m hearing the company are still playing hard ball. They want to take 50% of my wages from me BILL SMITH and all the time they’ve been making money hand over fist.” Bill says workers had not even discussed a pay rise; it was all just about trying to keep what they only offering 12 months contracts for new recruits. have. “We’re hoping the company will come to its senses,” “I’m happy with what I’m earning,” he said. “I could he says. “But I can’t see it happening with the current live with just a CPI increase. We are more worried about management. It’s going to have to come from secure work. Jobs for the future. At the moment that looks Copenhagen. Svitzer is going against Maersk core values. very shaky. There’s lots of nervous people about. Once They are supposed to respect workers but they are you’d go to work and it was a pleasure. Now every day is treating people like shit.” a battle. Not a day goes by my phone doesn’t ring as the He thanked the union for all their efforts so far. delegate. Something’s happened.” “Our officials have the full support of the members,” he There is no job security. Bill says a half dozen guys are added. “We appreciation their efforts so far in this fight about to retire from permanent jobs, but the company is for our jobs.” •

“They want to take 50% of my wages from me and all the time they’ve been making money hand over fist.”

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Was the Moorebank tender corrupt? Report questions integrity of government tendering for Moorebank Intermodel Terminal and calls for federal anti-corruption commission

report examining the findings of tax audits into the awarding of the $2B intermodal terminal project to Qube in 2017 released last year, raises questions of corruption. The report “Competition, Integrity and Accountability at MooreBank: Can public confidence in the Australian Government be restored?” exposes a $1.64B land deal, a failed tendering process, conflicts of interest and improper gifts. “It shows how much private interest may be profiting from close relations to government,” the report found. “Greater scrutiny is required in Australian federal politics.” Based on an examination of two Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) reports into Qube’s purchase of the Moorebank intermodal terminal, the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) noted massive concessions made to the company. It also noted Qube’s close connections to the Coalition Government. The audit found the government’s MooreBank Intermodal Company (MIC) management identified candidates for procurement ‘by way of personal or business referrals’, the report noted. “Two investigations by the ANAO found that the procurement process for Moorebank was non-competitive, fraught with conflicts of interest, and undermined value for taxpayer dollars,” CICTAR noted. Competitive open tender was abandoned in favour of a no-bid contract for Qube. MIC also provided Qube rent holidays, discounts on ground rent and freedoms from competitive imperatives. Up to April 2018 (after financial

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“Moorebank and the train connecting the terminal to the wharves will be automated and used against port workers.” PAUL KEATING close on the Moorebank deal), at least 138 offers of gifts, benefits or hospitality were made to MIC staff. Four organisations were responsible for more than half of these offers, and 65% of the total value of these offers. These four organisations included MIC’s three key advisers and Qube. The Auditor-General found “[g] ifts and benefits offered by both Qube and the consulting firms were almost always directed towards senior MIC staff, and in particular, those with influence over or decision-

making responsibilities in regard to MIC’s contractual arrangements. Three of MIC’s most senior staff members accounted for 83% of the total offers made.” Under the contract with Qube the Commonwealth will receive less than half of the ground rent for warehousing land than was originally expected. At the same time Qube sold land and warehouses at Moorebank to Logos Property Group for $1.65B. Moorebank is the latest in a long list of scandals that saw publicly funded programs benefit private interests of well-connected friends and corporations, the report notes, citing: • 70% of $1.1B community development grants benefiting the wealthiest Liberal electorates. • $100M in community sports funding to coalition seats. • tens of millions to NewsCorp. Australia used to be a world leader in public integrity, CICTAR notes. Since 2014, just after the Liberal Government took power, Australia has fallen out of the top 10 least-corrupt countries. CICTAR calls for a federal ICAC. It is a call joined by the Maritime Union. Qube ownership of the terminal is already impacting on Port Botany workers. “In our opinion it undermines the rights of waterside workers,” said Sydney Branch Secretary Paul Keating. “Moorebank and the train connecting the terminal to the wharves will be automated and used against port workers. “It is run by an aggressively antiunion company,” he said. “It will be used to take our work from the wharves inland.” •

ON THE WATERFRONT

Po et ry fr om the

Another day down and deeper in debt On the picket line with no regret It’s a daily struggle with a united plight It has brought us all together and we will win this fight! Back in the gates the jobs half done It won’t be over till the donks are gone! - anonymous

n unnamed wharfie spent cold winter nights on the picket line – 78 days that lasted into the Fremantle Spring. It was an arduous struggle that separated families and friends. But one that inspired solidarity from comrade unions at home and abroad. Tuggies in Fremantle, Kwinana, Melbourne and Mackay gave from their rolling funds, waterside workers at the terminals dug deep, vets shared their pensions, crew on 20 ships and tankers chipped in. Dave Noonan, CFMMEU acting national secretary at the time, alone raised $60,000 for the struggle from construction division branches. Everyone who could lend a hand did. “I would visit the picket almost every day, or night or both. I’d join my comrades at 5am, duck home at 7am to wake the kids and get them off the school then go and do some causal office work, or on the weekend, wash dishes and make pizza. Sometimes we’d have special days like a burger cook up, family day, taco night, AFL final picket brisket breakfast. Picketers would bring their dogs, kids, parents, brothers, sisters, friends,” one MUA member wrote to Maritime Workers’ First magazine. Global unions weighed in. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union stopped ships in the sister port of Tacoma and LA. Federal Workplace Relations Minister Cash swung in behind the bosses and the dispute went to arbitration. The battle was finally won when

Qub e wor kers wer e dete rmi ned to figh t for thei r righ ts. With solid arit y at hom e and abro ad they won – and they sun g abou t it

the 120 workers at Qube Fremantle, locked in a new enterprise agreement on November 9. It included 14 new permanent jobs, 10% pay rises – 5% upfront and 5% over two years – and massively enhanced safety/fatigue clauses as well as restrictions on use of labour hire. The Qube protected action was the longest ever recorded in the union’s history.

HISTORY OF A DISPUTE

It began on July 30, when after months of futile negotiations, workers took protected action as is their legal right. “QUBE is the corporate bastard child of Chris Corrigan, who headed Patrick in the infamous dispute of 1998. Corrigan conspired with the Howard Federal Government to try and destroy the MUA. While he is long retired, anti-worker and anti-union venom still flows through the veins of QUBE bosses,” the South Australia branch proclaim on their walls commemorating QUBE as a key victory for all in 150 years of maritime unionism. “After 12 months of listening to QUBE’s HR bosses garble about why they can’t agree to a single bargaining claim in the negotiation of a new QUBE Fremantle EBA, our members had enough,” said Branch Secretary Will Tracey. “121 QUBE members in Fremantle voted 100% in favour of protected action…all voted YES to every question – an unbelievable turnout.” At issue was not money, but safety and fatigue. One in three Qube workers in Fremantle had been on workers’ compensation. Workers only had last minute notice what shift they would be clocking on the next day. Many were required to work excessive and consecutive hours and shifts without a break.

Not one worker at Qube in Fremantle had a roster. Even permanent workers were told by text which shift they were working the night before, Tracey said. Qube workers wanted the company to give notice by 2pm each day on whether they were working the following day. Not 4pm. “I’ve done 10 years working day by day, never knowing when you have a day off to enjoy with family until 4pm,” one worker wrote. “At 2pm you can make a dentist appointment (or cancel one), you can organise yourself for the following day before the kids finish school.” Workers needed to have a work/life balance, Tracey told the local media. They needed to know if they could be there for their kids and mates. Casuals needed time to look for other work if none was available at Qube. To add insult to injury the company brought in scab labour to work the ships while the workers were out the gate. Tracey went on local media highlighting how Qube contracted workers from outside the industry with no MSIC security clearance and little skills. The non-union workers wore no face masks on the job in close proximity to foreign seafarers in breach of exposedon-board workers’ directions. Some cargo they worked, they damaged and took twice as long. The International Transport Workers’ Federation Dockers section and the International Dockers Council backed the Fremantle workers on the ground. Qube faced losing its largest customers Wallenius Wilhelmsen and K Line to its competitor, after the lines avoided disruptions and bypassed the port. Willie Adams, ILWU President saluted the mighty men and women out on strike for standing tall. www.mua.org.au

“Dockers not only here in the US, but throughout the world have their eyes on this struggle,” he said. (ILWU) Local 23 from Tacoma, Washington was hauled before the International Labour Relations Board (USA equivalent of the Fair Work Commission), for its solidarity action. Their defence read:

“ILWU Local 23: • condemns the actions of Walenius Wilhelmsen Lines utilizing scab labor to work their vessels in Australia. • will always stand in solidarity with workers under attack at any time and in any place throughout the world. • members chose not to work this vessel until the stench of the scabs has dissipated from the shipping line.

In closing, one day longer, one day stronger mates.” On the US East Coast Dennis Daggett, ILA executive Vice President who also leads the International Dockers Council pledged by video: “We are with you, we are out there supporting you. MUA all the way.” Kimihiro Kashiwagi, president of The National Federation of Dockworkers Unions of Japan wrote to K-Line describing the company move as an “intolerable assault on workers’ rights.” The Maritime Union of New Zealand also weighed in. “We’ve got your back,” Craig Harrison, MUNZ Secretary said, adding the dispute showed how the international solidarity network can get things done. www.mua.org.au

MUA Deputy National Secretary Warren Smith said the victory at Qube fuelled an understanding that workers “can take on the biggest and ugliest of bosses and win”. The WA branch thanked Paul McAleer (ITF) and Paul Keating (IDC/Sydney branch Secretary) for networking that ‘was second to none’. Thanks also went to Ian Bray, ITF Australia, who ensured QUBE did not use exploited foreign seafarers to do the stevedoring work. Every vessel coming to the port was put on notice about the need to comply with international and national stevedoring conventions, Bray said. “From the opening bell Christy Cain, CFMEU acting national secretary played a critical role in garnering support of Qube workers from like-minded unions,” said Tracey. Cain flew to WA and spent two weeks in quarantine so he could also be on the picket “John Setka, CFMMEU construction and Troy Gray ETU weighed in with massive financial support, alongside the Australian Workers Union, the Transport Workers Union and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union,” Tracey added. National unions donated tens of thousands to the striking workers. Branches and worksites all chipped in on behalf of the 125 striking Qube members who made huge sacrifices going without work all that time. MUA members in Brisbane, Melbourne, Port Headland,

Westernport, Patricks, DPW nationwide, CBH, LINX, FPA, Switzer, Hutchinson, VICT and Toll all lent a hand. On the water, tug crew in Melbourne, Fremantle, Kwinana and Mackay chipped in, alongside crew on Sydney Ferries, the Ningaloo, Oka, Pacific Grevlag, Normand Sirius, Maersk Deliverer, Northwest Storm Petrel, Feinstein, Far Senator, Far Skimmer, Elcano, Geo Coral, Seven Oceans, Siem Thima, Northwest Sanderling, Deep Orient, Ocean Protector, Toll shipping and Skandi Darwin. MUA vets and countless others also made sure the workers and their families didn’t go hungry during the months they spent outside the gates. “Despite the heartache, despite the frustrations we took the high ground for 78 days,” one picketer wrote to the branch. “We knew we were right in this dispute and we were solid in our stance – but to have others back you in from all over the planet… well it knocks you over with a feather. No matter how staunch you are… staunch staunchness gives you a lump in your throat.” Back in the gate the struggle continues. Tracey reports Qube has sacked one union rep, stood down six MUA members, with 15 facing written warnings. Now that we are back, good men are under attack! United we stand! A fair go we demand! For our kids, for our wives! United we Stand! MUA for life. •

PEACE IS UNION BUSINESS

Unions called to fight war on workers, not world war

he deal hatched in secret for Australia to join a new security pact and sign off on $200B US nuclear subs for a looming war with China is a bad deal for workers. The Australia, United Kingdom and United States (AUKUS) trilateral security pact the Morrison Government announced last September may come with submarines. But at a price.

“The billions wasted on submarines should be spent on building an Australian strategic shipping fleet, renewable energy, raising Jobseeker payments above the poverty line, pay increases for health workers and teachers – not a war mongering military alliance,” the Maritime Union proclaimed in a media statement last September. www.mua.org.au

Instead of preparing for a war drive the Australian government should be converting shipyards in Adelaide and elsewhere to the production of an Australian merchant fleet, Deputy National Secretary Warren Smith reported to the union’s February monthly meetings. The MUA position is to build a trading fleet instead of a fleet of environmentally destructive war machines. The MUA is playing a lead role in a coalition of unions and peace groups opposing the new military pact. Smith spoke at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament online conference based in the UK in January while Dave Ball, MUA deputy branch secretary Victoria spoke at public rally in Melbourne. Paul Pietersen, Queensland assistant branch secretary and relieving official Aaron Johnstone were active at the Brisbane protest. More recently the MUA was represented on an online panel of peace activists, featuring renowned historian, social critic and political activist Professor Noam Chomsky. Also on the panel was Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union National Secretary Steve Murphy who gave an impassioned speech on how the union had campaigned hard to get 350 Australian jobs for the now defunct French submarine contract, only to have them all lost. “We don’t need another war but if we are going to beat the drums of war it should be about something worth fighting for,” Murphy said, calling for a war on poverty, inequality, exploitation, political corruption, wage theft, insecure jobs, media bias and tax avoidance. Speaking alongside Murphy on the international forum, was Port Botany wharfie, delegate, peace, environment and climate activist Nat Wasley. The risk of contamination from the subs was huge, she warned. “It is inevitable if a nuclear sub sinks the fuel will leak onto the seabed and the radiation will contaminate sea life impacting on fishing communities,” she said, also warning of nuclear proliferation. “The fuel on board subs is equal to 20 nuclear weapons.” Chomsky told the panel he was www.mua.org.au

sceptical of the US prediction that China was surpassing the West as a world power. He described the move to encircle China as insanity. China would not be intimidated. China was expanding its economic reach via its ambitious Belt and Road global infrastructure plan and the US had no way to counter this, Chomsky said – “unless the US self-destructs by going to war.” “A US-China war means game over,” Chomsky said. “Both countries should cooperate or they will collapse together and bring the world down with them.” At a time of pandemic crisis when teachers and nurses were struggling with many other front-line workers, spending billions on nuclear submarines was outrageous, Smith reported to the monthly meetings. “It brings no benefit to the Australian people and makes us a military target,” he said. Speaking on the steps of Sydney Town Hall at a rally in December, Smith stressed workers and unions were already under attack. “There is a war being waged and it is

being waged on us,” he said. “It a war on workers and we need to fight back.” Smith said there was nothing more important for workers and their families than peace and secure jobs. “The reality is there are more jobs in renewable energy, health and education than there will ever be in war,” he told the Town Hall rally. “There are 41.7% more jobs in building clean energy than in war, you get 120% more jobs in education than you do in war, there’s 42% more jobs in building infrastructure, not bombing it.” (Source – “Job Opportunity Cost of War”, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, 2017) The lyrics to the UK rock band Black Sabbath song “War Pigs” sums it up, Murphy said: “Politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war. Why should they go out to fight, they leave that to the poor.” “Our long history has shown us that it is workers who die in wars fought for the interests of bosses and corporations,” said Smith, recalling the 1 in 8 seafarers who died in WWII, and the 24 waterside workers who died in the Japanese bombing of Darwin. With nuclear war everyone dies. •

INTERNATIONAL

SEAFARERS under fire in Black Sea Unions condemn invasion and ban Russian ships as merchant marine casualties grow

27-year-old ship’s engineer from Bangladesh, Hadisur Rahman, became the first crew fatality of war in Ukraine after an artillery shell struck the bridge of his cargo ship, the Banglar Samriddhi, in the port of Olvia on March 2. He will not be the last. The same night, six seafarers were rescued from the Helt, an Estonian cargo vessel that sank after an explosion near Odessa. The Japanese-owned MV Namura Queen was hit by a missile which Ukraine authorities said was fired by Russian forces. One of the 21 Filipino seafarers was injured and the ship sailed from Ukrainian waters to Turkey for damage assessment, the owners said. The Turkish owned Yass Jupiter cargo vessel and the Moldovan flagged Millennial Spirit have also come under fire, Reuters reports. Crew on the Millennial Spirit were Russian. Two were seriously injured. The International Transport Workers’ Federation is calling for an immediate ceasefire by all parties and

for diplomatic solutions in line with the United Nations. Both the ITF and the MUA have condemned the Russian invasion. Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary Paddy Crumlin has written to the Australian Prime Minister calling for Asia-Pacific sanctions and a national embargo on all Russian registered or owned shipping and cargo. “Workers around the world are defiant in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Crumlin, who is also ITF President, said. Unions worldwide are pushing to widen bans on Russian ships from their ports, potentially black listing more than 1700 vessels. Major shipping lines have enacted trade embargoes with Russia. The

two largest shipping companies in the world by TEU capacity – Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company – have both suspended container shipping to Russia. On many merchant ships, Ukrainian and Russian seafarers work side by side in peace, supporting one another in one of the most dangerous and demanding industries in the world. Meanwhile in Italy, Union Sindacale di Base (USB) members at the port of Livorno declared “maximum solidarity” with workers at Galileo Galilei airport in Pisa who refused to load crates of weapons, ammunition and explosives destined for Ukraine. The crates were disguised as “humanitarian aid” and originated from US/NATO bases in Poland, USB said. www.mua.org.au

Outrage over P&O Ferries workers sacked on zoom Company dumps 800 UK seafarers with plans to replace them with cheaper agency workers

“Workers around the world are defiant in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” PADDY CRUMLIN

Paddy Crumlin said the MUA has a proud history of taking principled stands against global injustices. “Our rank-andfile membership are custodians of a long tradition of internationalism and campaigning for peace and justice,” he said. Australian seafarers and waterside workers have fought for the sovereign rights of Indonesia and Vietnam. They acted against apartheid in South Africa – the importance of which was recognised by Nelson Mandela at his meeting with MUA officials in Australia. In more recent years, support from Australian seafaring members of the MUA for the East Timorese was recognised as strategically significant by retired General Sir Peter Cosgrove. Trade unionists and Maritime Union members have always been at the forefront of peace and international justice campaigns and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. The 1938 Dalfram dispute saw Australian waterfront labourers refuse to load pig iron bound for Japan during its invasion of China in the prelude to World War II. One in eight Australian merchant seafarers lost their lives in service to the nation while working on transport, supply and hospital ships around Australia’s coast in that war. • www.mua.org.au

&O Ferries told its 800 seafaring staff in the United Kingdom via a video call that Thursday March 17 was their “final day of employment”. Some refused to leave their ships in protest and were removed by security guards. P&O said it would “not be a viable business” without replacing the workers with agency casuals but the British government called the workers’ treatment “wholly unacceptable”. The RMT union threatened legal action against P&O and urged the government to withdraw any support for P&O owners DP World, including future contracts, until the jobs are reinstated. RMT also called for a public and commercial boycott of P&O. The Maritime Union of Australia said the sackings were a “callous and unprincipled” act by a company which, despite benefiting from significant government subsidies, aimed to replace its entire workforce with agency-sourced casual labour on lower pay, and with lower training and safety standards. “The company is MUA National Secretary, brazenly thumbing its Paddy Crumlin, who is also the president of the nose at the very community International Transport which supported it with Workers Federation, called on massive sums of P&O’s majority shareholder, DP World, to examine P&O taxpayers’ money.” senior management failures that PADDY CRUMLIN had put the company in a position where it could only remain profitable by sacking its entire seafaring staff. “If DP World won’t act to prevent this as the majority shareholder, the UK government must, because a company that conducts business this way does so without any social licence,” Crumlin said. P&O Ferries received £33 million in government subsidies during the COVID pandemic. “Rather than being grateful for the corporate welfare which sustained it during COVID, the company is brazenly thumbing its nose at the very community which supported it with massive sums of taxpayers’ money,” Crumlin said. He pointed out that a global supply chain crunch has already caused massive economic and social upheaval. “On top of this, the actions of P&O Ferries will cause tremendous delays throughout Europe, with a suspension of at least 10 days on the UK – France and Irish Sea routes causing a ripple effect throughout continental Europe that will take months to overcome.” “Not only will this ruin the lives of 800 hardworking seafarers, this act of social and economic vandalism will disrupt hundreds of thousands of people and businesses for months to come at a time when the global economy can least handle it,” Crumlin said. •

OFFSHORE

Thousands of maritime jobs in the making as oil and gas giants ordered not to trash our oceans.

ulti-billion-dollar oil and gas players have been winding up and walking away from major offshore projects in Australian waters, leaving tonnes of steel and plastic to pollute the ocean. Now a union push for industry regulation and new government legislation is yielding results, with offshore companies ordered to clean up their act. “It could create thousands of jobs,” said Maritime Union Assistant National secretary Adrian Evans, citing a recent report. National Energy Resources Australia in February found the industry decommissioning bill could come to $52B – mostly labour and vessel hire costs to plug 1008 wells and remove all offshore equipment including 755,000 tonnes of fixed facilities, 6,660km of pipelines, 130 umbilicals 1,500km long and 535 subsea structures. Global energy consultancy group Wood Mackenzie has projected that 65 offshore platforms and seven floating facilities will cease production in Australia by 2026. While oil and gas majors have been required to cover the bill since the sixties, they have failed to do so. This is despite industry profits running into tens of billions of dollars.

Companies have no incentive to clean up after themselves. There are no profits in decommissioning. They have to be compelled to act. Peter Milne, journalist and former engineer in the oil and gas industry highlights three tactics companies use to avoid cleaning up: selling off aging assets, delaying clean-up

“People are fearful of losing their jobs and don’t want to speak up.” Jack McCabe

until it is unsafe to do so or simply dumping everything in the ocean. These tactics all worked in the companies’ favour until a move by Woodside to avoid the clean-up for the Northern Endeavour oil production vessel in the Timor Sea backfired. Woodside sold the vessel in 2015 for $29M profit to a one-man company Northern Oil and Gas Australia. The company went bust a year later. Responsibility for

removing the vessel then fell to the federal government. To date the cost of keeping the vessel safe and preparing it for decommission is $200M. The final cost is estimated at $1.2B. The government was compelled to act or foot the bill. It commissioned an independent report into the debacle in 2020. The Walker Review found sellers of oil and gas assets should stay liable for clean-up. It made nine recommendations to improve practices, policies and legislation. Some of these recommendations have been adopted. Some have not. First up the government introduced an industry levy of 48 cents per barrel. This will see industry, not the taxpayer foot the clean-up bill. “The changes were a rare case of the fossil fuel industry not getting its way with the Federal Coalition government and have halted a rush by major oil and gas companies to exit ageing Australian assets,” Milne reported. The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) has also stepped in, issuing directions with fixed deadlines for wells to be made safe within three years of end of production. Companies then have two years to remove everything from the ocean. www.mua.org.au

A report by global consulting firm Advisian estimates a coming surge of decommissioning work, mostly in the North Carnarvon Basin off Northwest WA between Exmouth and Dampier, but also the Bass Strait. Twenty-seven per cent of decommissioning work needs to take place before 2025. The majority, 51% of the work, is to take place before 2030. NOPSEMA has already issued directions to ENI, Woodside, BHP, Mobil, Inpex and Cooper Energy to plug and remove over 200 disused wells and associated subsea equipment and at least 10 platforms, located off Victoria and West Australia.

AGEING ASSETS

In a series of submissions to NOPSEMA and the federal government, both the Offshore Alliance and the Maritime Union have warned about an alarming rate of offshore facilities past their use by date and dangerous lack of maintenance. The fleet of aging assets includes some 50-year-old platforms. Yet the typical design life of oil platforms is 26 years and for floating production vessels it is 20. NOPSEMA found half of offshore facilities were over 20 years old. “Under financial pressure, they (companies) may be pushing out the operation of the facility beyond design life in order to avoid decommissioning costs,” the unions submitted. Oil and gas majors have postponed maintenance and slashed 28,000 jobs. One in five of the jobs lost were in maintenance. Unions submit the new policy must ensure clear triggers and penalties are in place to ensure plans to cease production and remove equipment are executed. They have called for government to put a six-month timeline on company clean ups to get underway. Oil and gas majors should cover the costs. “We also want NOPSEMA to inspect jobs,” said Adrian Evans. “We want them to send divers down to make sure the job has been done. Not just take the word of the oil majors!” www.mua.org.au

“We want them to send divers down to make sure the job has been done. Not just take the word of the oil majors!” Adrian Evans

WA organiser Jack McCabe warns decommission jobs are going to be full of risks. “It’s reverse construction,” he said. “It’s easy to put in but when taking it out it’s rush, rush, rush.” McCabe says without a regulator able to walk onto the job there is always the risk that operators will cut corners. “You know what they say – when you go offshore there’s no one watching,” he said. “People are fearful of losing their jobs and don’t want to speak up.”

SAFETY PARAMOUNT

No profits spin out of decommissioning, making it ripe for cost cutting. This also undermines safe work practices. On the Sinbad platform (see box) a lift went bad threatening the lives of three workers. The near-death experience was filmed and went viral. Only the quick-thinking action of the crane operator saved their lives. In August 2021 a worker on the Northern Endeavour was seriously injured by falling off a faulty walkway. He suffered fractured ribs, torn shoulder tendons and a T3 transverse fracture in the vertebra. The walkway was a recognised safety hazard and had been reported to management. They did nothing. As MWJ went to press, the industry levy to pay for the decommissioning of the Northern Endeavour and its oilfields passed through Parliament. But it is not tied to legally binding oversight of contractors and job safety on the work that it will pay for, and the minister has unilateral powers to reduce it at any time.

Victory for Divers After workers took a stand, Total AMS Group now pays full offshore rates to contracted divers. This is despite the Thevenard decommissioning contract being based on inshore rates for divers. “TAMS do not have an offshore EA that we could rely upon to enforce the scope through the courts,” said Assistant National Secretary Adrian Evans. “But thanks to the strength of our divers, we have been able to get to the table the last couple of days and achieve the bulk of what we were seeking.” In a letter circulated to all MUA divers, Evans said there was a heap of pressure on the young TAMS guys. “But they stuck fast for which they should be commended,” he said. Evans said the other key outcome was a commitment from TAMS to engage in an industry Offshore Dive Agreement. “We did not get 100% of what we wanted,” he said. “But the unity of the divers has delivered offshore rates for decommissioning, a job that I expect TAMS will now be out of pocket for.” Evans said the union and divers need to spread the word far and wide that any decommissioning work must be offshore rates “or we don’t take the job.” “This message to industry needs to remain loud and clear and requires unity among the diving membership to enforce it. This is a good win to build on,” he said, stressing the need to lock in ALL the offshore players. •

OFFSHORE

HORROR FILM goes VIRAL “Get it off, get it off!” three workers scream as an attempt to lift a huge platform above them goes terribly wrong. Two hundred tonnes of steel swings out of control just above their heads as they cling to a pylon jutting 20 metres out of the ocean. Steel cables snap and in a heart stopping moment, it looks as if the hunk of steel will swing back onto the workers. The video of the July 5, 2021, decommissioning of the Sinbad platform near Varanus Island west of Karratha was uploaded onto Facebook. It got 343,000 views and 1,400 comments. “No such thing as a ‘Near Miss’ – it was a Near Hit!” one seafarer commented. “Typical oil company, profits before people,” said another. “It was one of the most horrifically scary accidents we’ve seen captured on camera,” AWU secretary Daniel Walton told 9 News. He accused Santos of cutting corners to save a buck. “If it wasn’t for the quick actions of the crane operator they undoubtedly would have been crushed.” Santos said it reported the incident and worked with the regulators to ensure corrective measures were in place. •

When unions raised this objection, the Minister promised in writing that the Northern Endeavour operator UPS would become a ‘registered operator’ under the offshore safety and environment act, but three months later this has still not happened. Unions argue the government measures to date fall short of the Walker recommendations – for example oil and gas operators are not required to prove they have financial security in place to cover their decommissioning costs. The government floated this idea in 2020 but has now gone quiet. The MUA is also calling for government to maximise jobs for the future. Australia should set up a decommissioning yard to dismantle facilities and recycle steel. The oil and gas industry is putting a lot of resources in to argue there is an environmental benefit to leaving their old facilities and pipelines in place. We know they just want to cut costs. Going forward, the union will be carefully examining all the applications companies are putting in to leave oil and gas infrastructure in place, and raising our objections. We will also be looking at the safety plans companies are filing for decommissioning work to ensure corners are not being cut and experienced workers are doing the job. Unions are also pushing for a requirement that decommissioned oil fields are inspected before being handed back to public ownership, to ensure work has been properly completed. Union wins to date include ensuring that offshore rates are paid for divers do decommissioning work and making it NOPSEMA policy to talk to Health and Safety Reps on every inspection. The Offshore Alliance has successfully organised workers on the Northern Endeavour, and it is negotiating a new EA – but now there are indications that the contract could go to another operator. “The Government has, belatedly, moved in the right direction, but unions and the workforce need to scrutinise everything they do to ensure there are no loopholes,” said Evans. •

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C L I M AT E S T R I K E The MUA’s Thomas Mayor takes the stand as striking students and supporters rally outside the PM’s Sydney residence

aritime workers rallied with striking students outside the prime minister’s Sydney residence at Kirribilli House on March 25. Other unions under the banner Workers for Climate Action also joined the rally of an estimated 2000 in Sydney, one of 36 School Strike 4 Climate rallies held around the nation. Slogans and banners got political – and personal: “It’s burning, it’s pouring and Scomo is snoring”; “Change the politics, not the climate”; “Stop Scomo’s Climate Vandalism”; “Break the Liberals, not the Planet”; and “Don’t be a fossil fool”. Thirteen-year-old Ella O’Dwyer -Oshlack told how her school in Lismore was closed by floods, how she had lost her home. Two years earlier the Black Summer mega fires came close. She blamed government inaction for climate change. MUA Indigenous Officer Thomas Mayor spoke of the impending loss of his Torres Strait island home. “I’ll never forget when, several years ago, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott didn’t know the mic was still on,” he told the rally. “Those bastards were laughing that the seas were rising and we’re starting to lose our homes. We’re picking up the bones of our ancestors from the beaches. Shame on these people.” Mayor said he had been a unionist for more than 20 years. “Every step of the way, Liberal governments have tried to take away our rights, because we’ve got power in numbers.” He said the Coalition had failed First Nations people by failing to take the question of a constitutionally empowered First Nations Voice to the Australian people in a referendum. “They’ve had the opportunity to do something with the Uluru Statement from the Heart for five years and they’ve done nothing.” The global day of action came as floods, bushfires and storm surges become more extreme, affecting the lives of millions of Australians and people across the globe. • www.mua.org.au

WOMEN

Morrison fails working women Scott Morrison has either done nothing, shirked responsibility, or blocked progress on major issues facing women in the workplace, says an ACTU report.

recent ACTU report – Morrison Missing – A Record of His Failure for Working Women – shows that under the Morrison government, women in the workplace: ■ Earn on average $483.30 less per week than a man and retire with about half the amount of super as a man. ■ Are more likely to be in low wage and insecure work, and therefore more likely to have lost work or hours during the pandemic.

■ Have a 2 in 3 chance of experiencing sexual harassment in a current or former workplace. ■ Have no guaranteed right to paid family and domestic violence leave, despite a spike in family and domestic violence during the pandemic. ■ Rely on the second worst paid parental leave scheme in the developed world, according to the OECD.

■ Pay for some of the most expensive early childhood education and care in the world – with early childhood educators being extremely low paid. MUA National Officer Mich-Elle Myers says the report calls for long-overdue changes to make workplaces and society safer for women, close the gender pay gap and ensure all working women have a secure retirement.

The changes include:

■ Introducing stronger equal pay laws in the Fair Work Act.

■ Pay superannuation on parental leave.

■ Implement all 55 recommendations of the Respect@ Work report, including a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment. ■ Legislate 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave into the National Employment Standards. ■ Introduce free, universal, accessible and high-quality childhood education and care.

INTERNATIONAL

US REGULATORS target carrier fees Government aims to lower prices and regulate business practices

government regulators are investigating the practices of the container shipping industry in the wake of international carriers’ record profits in 2021. US politicians have blamed foreign shipping companies for skyrocketing shipping fees, unprecedented delays, and schedule changes. Senator Maria Cantwell, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation called for “bipartisan action to protect our agriculture producers and export businesses from unfair ocean carrier practices so they can get their goods to the global marketplace, and we can further relieve port congestion, reduce supply chain backlogs, and lower prices for consumers.” In March, President Joe Biden announced an enhanced focus by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), working with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to enforce antitrust laws and stop any abusive practices by the large carriers that were raising costs and hurting American exporters. The president also called on Congress to pass reforms to the Ocean Shipping Act that regulates the business practices of the carriers. The US House of Representatives passed an overhaul of the act in December which would provide the FMC with greater authority to regulate the international shipping companies and require additional transparency and reporting from the carriers on fees, export versus empty container volumes, and quarterly volumes entering and

exiting U.S. ports. In a statement, the White House said the DoJ and FMC would work together to make sure that large ocean freight companies cannot take advantage of U.S. businesses and consumers. “Right now, three global alliances, made up entirely of foreign companies, control almost all of ocean freight shipping, giving them power to raise prices for American businesses and consumers, while threatening our national security and economic competitiveness,” the White House said. “These companies have formed global alliances—groups of ocean carrier companies that work together—that now control 80% of global container ship capacity and control 95% of the critical East-West trade lines. “This consolidation happened rapidly over the last decade. From 1996 to 2011, the leading three alliances operated only about 30% of global container shipping. Significant consolidation occurred in the years running up to the pandemic.” The statement said ocean carrier companies increased spot rates for freight shipping between Asia and the United States by 100% since January 2020, and increased rates for freight shipping between the United States and Asia by over 1,000% over the same period. “Oftentimes cargo owners are charged fees—known as ‘detention and demurrage’ fees—even when they can’t get access to their containers to move them. The FMC estimates www.mua.org.au

A meeting of presidents US President holds top level meeting with labour presidents … and lunch

“Right now, three global alliances, made up entirely of foreign companies, control almost all of ocean freight shipping.” - WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT

that from July to September of 2021, eight of the largest carriers charged customers fees totalling $2.2 billion—a 50% increase on the previous three-month period. “Meanwhile, the ocean carrier companies are experiencing elevated profits and soaring profit margins. Estimates suggest that the container shipping industry made a record $190 billion in profits in 2021, a seven-fold increase from the previous year and five times what it made over the entire period from 2010-2020. “Profit margins have increased by even larger amounts. In the third quarter of 2021, the average operating margin of the major carriers was about 56%, compared to an average operating margin of 3.7% two years earlier.” Beyond price increases, the government is also taking aim at specific business practices such as cancelling or changing bookings without notice and imposing “box rules” that require truckers to use only certain trailers to haul their containers. This, the government says, leads to lower pay and longer wait times for truck drivers, who get paid per box, and allows the ocean carriers to generate even higher detention and demurrage fees. Industry association the World Shipping Council (WSC) said the allegations were unfounded. The carriers were “moving more cargo right now than at any time in history in order to meet the unprecedented demand for imported goods during the pandemic,” said John Butler, WSC president and CEO. “The legislative proposals currently before Congress would upend the global transportation system, reducing service for US importers and exporters and raising costs for American consumers and businesses,” Butler said. • www.mua.org.au

Presidents of all US unions met with US President Joe Biden at the DuPont hotel, Wilmington, Delaware in March. US Labour Secretary Marty Walsh, himself a former union leader, was also at the meeting hosted by AFL CIO President Liz Shuler. The president thanked the labour leaders for their support. He outlined the steps his administration had taken since inauguration in January 2021 to help union members. In the 14 months since Joe Biden became President, more than 7.4M jobs have been created across the United States, and unemployment has reduced to 3.8%. Since coming to power Biden has sacked all Trump appointments on the National Labor Relations Board and appointed academics, former union leaders, union lawyers and mediators. “We’ve never had a US President this committed to the union movement,” said ILWU President Willie Adams. “Not Clinton, not Obama – not since Harry Truman.” Meanwhile in February former ILWU waterside worker and union official Max Vekich was sworn in as the fifth member of the Federal Maritime Commission. The Biden appointment was confirmed by the US Senate in a 51-43 vote on February 10. •

150 YEARS

Main Events Union celebrations have begun and will roll out throughout the year. Some are yet to be announced. So, stay tuned!

of struggle It all began in Melbourne in I872 with the first seamen’s union which two years later became the Federated Seamen’s Union of Australia. The same year the first two local waterside workers’ unions formed; in Sydney, the Wharf Labourers Union; and in Adelaide, the Port Adelaide Working Men’s Association. Within a year of Federation in 1902 the Waterside Workers’ Federation brought all local port unions together under national leadership and in 1906 the FSUA was renamed the Seamen’s Union of Australia. Then in 1993 both unions joined to become the mighty Maritime Union of Australia. Since 2018 the MUA has become a division of Australia’s most militant union, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union. A lot happened in between. Throughout 2022 the MUA will be celebrating, commemorating, and honouring the milestones of 150 years of struggle that have made us what we are, a unique fighting union. We kick off with a preview of some of the many events to come throughout the year and a new book documenting a century of union international solidarity Maritime Men of the South Pacific: True Blue Internationals Navigating Labour Rights, 1906-2006. A special edition of MWJ in Summer will look back over a year of commemoration and forward to the struggles to come. •

XH Bombing of Darwin

Stokes Hill Wharf, February 19: Commemorative Service. Just before 10am on this day, 1941, around 240 Japanese aircraft attacked Darwin. It was the first and largest single enemy attack on Australian soil. More than 200 people died, including 23 waterside workers. Each year maritime workers gather to honour their dead.

May Day

Gala Dinner

Sydney, October 13: International labour leaders join national councillors, veterans, delegates and guests for the 150th Anniversary main event, the official unveiling of the Sydney Wharfie’s Mural permanent exhibition at the National Maritime Museum and a museum plaque commemorating union bans against Dutch arms shipments in solidarity with Indonesian seafarers and Indonesia’s national independence struggle.

May 1, nationwide: Veterans march proudly holding the painted banners of old.

Banners, badges and books

MUA Training Centre, ground floor, 365 Sussex Street, Sydney, March 24, 6pm: The MUA historical exhibition of banners, badges and other memorabilia spanning over a century goes on show. The exhibition is open 9-11am and 1-3pm with guided tours by MUA veterans. Hosted by MUA National Office and MUA Sydney Branch, the exhibition runs until April 8.

Big Bands

Melbourne Picnic Day, The Big Shed, Seaworks Maritime Precinct, Williamstown, October 29: Melbourne branch celebrations include The Noisy Johnnies, the Vincent Emanuel rock and blues band, food, drink and entertainment for MUA workers, families and comrades.

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Pig Iron Dispute

Sisterhood

Melbourne Union Rooms, March 3: MUA Women’s Committee commemorates half a century of women on the waterfront, on deck, in the union and on the global stage. Also recognising the activist wives, sisters, mothers and daughters who preceded the working women of the waterfront and oceans.

International Youth Conference Victoria Branch union rooms, Melbourne, August 24-25: Young workers in the maritime industry from around Australia deliberate on the importance of youth activism throughout history, with a special panel session held by veterans.

Fremantle Fair

A 150th function in Fremantle will be announced in the second half of the year subject to the state’s Covid-related restrictions.

Working Waves

Solidarity on the water at Soldiers Beach, Norah Head, NSW, March 25, 7am-4pm: The Working Waves Surf Competition is the centrepiece of the Hunter 150th celebrations.

Pro Bono Omnes

SA Branch rooms, August 19: SA branch commemorates the founding of the first waterfront union the Port Adelaide Working Men’s Association on this day in 1872. The union motto was Pro Bono Omnes: For the Good of All. The workforce of around 500 wharfies won their first battles for set rates and hours. 150 years on Adelaide maritime workers commemorate their union roots with a 19th century style picnic day and fanfare. A photo display marking union historical highlights and battles – from the 1928 strike and CSL Yarra victory in Port Pirie to international solidarity – will be on permanent display in the union rooms. www.mua.org.au

Port Kembla, November 15: Lights are on the Pig Iron Dispute Memorial: Local maritime workers will join busloads of Australia’s Chinese community from along the coast to commemorate the legendary pig iron dispute. On this day in 1938 waterside workers refused to load the Dalfram with a shipment of ore for Japan. Japan’s “Rape of Nanking” was underway and wharfies acted in solidarity with the people of China. Wharfies warned the pig iron would backfire. And it did - with the Japanese bombing of Darwin three years later. This is the first year lights will be installed on the sculpture commemorating the solidarity action.

First Nations

Sydney, September: First Nations wharfies and seafarers will come together for a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander member conference. From Wave Hill to Mabo, the union has a long history of solidarity with First Nations people. In 2022 the union enshrined a First Nations voice in the union constitution. Conference will focus on progressing constitutional change as a first priority of the newly elected government.

The Wharfie Professor

November 8, Devonport union rooms, Tasmania: The wharfie Professor Ian McFarlane hosts talks and events commemorating the island’s union history.

Old Timers

December 9, Old Timers events: Tributes paid for the working conditions, job security, wages and workers’ super – all hard fought by union veterans for the next generation to defend and build on. •

BOOK REVIEW

TRUE BLUE

n Australian seafarer is abandoned in Bombay in the days of the Raj. He experiences firsthand the brutality of the British colonialists in India – the dark side of global shipping, racism and slavery. His name is Harry Bridges. So begins Maritime Men of the South Pacific: True Blue Internationals Navigating Labour Rights, by historian Diane Kirkby. The book, in the words of the writer, describes “the campaigns to establish and maintain fair labour standards, driven by that sense of connection with workers across the world and their belief that ‘capital knows no country”’. Union internationalism was key to achieving rights for seafarers in what was the first global industry. But commitment to internationalism was challenged from the outset by racial differences and beliefs about white racial superiority. True Blue does not shy away from racism rampant among workers and unions in Australia in the 19th

Maritime Men of the South Pacific: True-blue Internationals Navigating Labour Rights 1906-2006 by Diane Kirkby with Lee-Ann Monk and Dmytro Ostapenko

and early 20th centuries. Nor their support for the White Australia Policy. But it also highlights how socialism and solidarity, especially among wharfies and seafarers, helped overcome years of divide and rule under colonialism. “Too few have explored the struggle of especially maritime workers to reach across these divides,” Kirkby writes, citing a contemporary US Journal: Socialism and internationalism were embodied in maritime unions. Seafarers were ‘by the nature of the(ir) calling,’ prime candidates to become ‘true-blue workingclass internationals’… their lived experience and workplace was international. Their shipmates come from all nations. “There is no colour bar in the Seamen’s Union,” the Seamen’s Journal proclaimed in 1920s. The SUA went on to help form a Chinese Seamen’s Union as a branch of the Chinese union in the 1930s under the leadership of EV Elliott. It helped Malay, Indonesian and Indian

seafarers establish their unions and get them released from prison after walking off ships over intolerable conditions. Yet True Blue is far from a purely Anglo Centric perspective of labour history in the region. Kirkby writes of the rise of unionism in Asia as an independent development, not the outcome of western union missionaries. She pays tribute to the early stand taken by Indian, Chinese and Japanese seafarers and dock workers fighting for their rights. Many of their strikes are recounted in detail. Chinese and Japanese dockworkers reached across the Pacific to Australian and US unionists in common struggles. Indian delegates were later to become strong activists in the International Labor Organisation’s work to establish a seafarers’ bill of rights.

COLONIALISM

British imperialism was built on racism and exploitation. Kirkby notes how the very perpetrators of

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the slave trade went on to become British ship owners in the merchant navy. This legacy continues with modern day slavery still endemic in shipping today. Colonialism did not just enslave seafarers; it gave British ships monopoly to ‘rule the waves’. In Bombay, the British decimated Indian shipping under their rule. Indian seafarers worked in slave-like conditions on British ships, as did the Chinese, once proud seafarers and a proud seafaring nation boasting fleets bigger than the Spanish Armada. British shipping owned more than 1/3 of world shipping. This was central to Britain’s rise to worldwide supremacy as a maritime power, Kirkby writes. In Australia, British shipping monopolised the trade between both countries well past Federation, stifling any attempts the new nation made to launch an Australian merchant fleet. Only with war was this overcome. Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905 www.mua.org.au

sent a seismic shock through Europe. The rising Asian empire was viewed a threat to Australia, which promptly reserved its coastal trade for Australian-owned ships ready to serve the nation. Despite protests from shippers, governments deemed it worth paying higher freight costs for national security. Even the press of the day was on side. Kirkby cites passages for the Sydney Morning Herald calling for a national fleet and minimum wages to attract Australian seafarers in the national interest. WWI gave even greater impetus to national shipping. PM Billy Hughes used government wartime powers to turn captured German ships into merchant vessels of the newly established Commonwealth Line (1916-1928). The line was abandoned by conservative governments post-war only to be revived in WW2 by a Curtin Labor Government under the Australian Shipping Board. After industry and union pressure the conservative Menzies government established the

Australian National Line. Mostly remembered as a Labor Rat for abandoning his party over conscription, Hughes was also the founder of the Waterside Workers Federation and its leader (19021916) while simultaneously a politician. But never a waterside worker. Robert Guthrie was another Labor politician who at the same time served as president of the Federated Seamen’s Union of Australasia. He helped rename and found the Seamen’s Union of Australia in 1906. Guthrie had worked as a seafarer on the Australian coast and had firsthand experience of exploitation and abuse. Together with Hughes, Guthrie worked to establish Australia’s first Navigation Act, providing minimum wages for seafarers. Rather than embrace colour bars, the wages and conditions applied to all crew on the Australian coast, whether white Australians or foreign Asian seafarers – in those days exploited “coolies” or lascars.

BOOK REVIEW

Harry Bridges with Charlie Fitzgibbon (above), banners, badges and books on display at Union commemorations Sussex st Sydney

TRUE BLUE

So forward thinking was Guthrie’s policy that it has remained mostly unchanged

over a century. “Few men have been more closely identified with Australian navigation matters or more intimately associated with Australian seamen” than Guthrie, the local press recorded. Other Australian maritime leaders Kirkby brings to life in the history include SUA General Secretary Tom Walsh and his then socialist and feminist wife Adela Pankhurst (youngest daughter of British suffragette Emily Pankhurst and SUA journal writer, who later swung to the right). Percy Coleman was a seafarer who rose to federal parliament in 1922 and went on to be Australia’s representative at the ILO. EV Elliot, Jim Healy, Charlie Fitzgibbon, Tas Bull, John Coombs and Paddy Crumlin all loom large in Australian maritime labour history. Kirkby not only fleshes out the Australian maritime leaders at the forefront of building

internationalism, but also those in India, the US and Japan. They included Aftab Ali, president of the Indian Seamen’s Union; India’s Leo Barnes, the first Asian seafarer member of the ILOs Joint Maritime Commission; and Japanese union leader Tomitaro Kaneda. Early attempts at regional cooperation amongst Asia Pacific dock unions first came about under Australia’s Jim Healy, Japan’s Tomitaro Kaneda and Harry Bridges, who after surviving abandonment in India and shipwrecks went on to form the International Longshore Workers’ Union and retain close ties with the Asia Pacific. The book highlights the powerful trio of Bridges, Healy and Kaneda embracing solidarity across the Pacific Ocean. These union networks filled the void left when the International Transport Workers’ Federation’s early attempts to go beyond its Eurocentric roots failed. Rising nationalism in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Japan paralleled regional union cooperation in tandem with the shift of world trade. Kirkby notes that

between 1950-1970 global tonnage in the Asian region increased sixfold. It was India’s PM Nehru who in the 1930s inspired the head of the ITF Edo Fimmen to reach out into Asia in 1940. True Blue traces the formation of the ITF after the 1889 London dock strike and its ‘Napoleon of Labour’ leader Ben Tillett and Tom Mann, who led the Federation. Mann later helped found the UK Communist Party. The ITF however swung right during the Cold War. While fleshing out individual leaders in the book Kirkby uncovers the rhyme of history. She highlights broad trends: while socialism overcame racism within the union movement it was political pragmatism that overcame political divisions.

COLD WAR

The international socialist moment of the 20th century helped cement solidarity across race and region. True Blue notes how the work of the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) of the 1920s, followed by the communist leadership of Australia’s Tom Walsh, EV Elliot, Jim

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“The Cold War set back labour internationalism, dividing workers with walls of iron and splitting global union confederations along political lines.”

Healy and, allegedly, Harry Bridges radicalised and supported maritime struggles of all colours. But the Cold War set back labour internationalism, dividing workers with walls of iron and splitting global union confederations along political lines. Kirkby outlines the unique role the ILO played operating above ideological alignments and conflicts during the Cold War. While the world union confederations were split between political camps, the ILO alone kept representation across the whole political spectrum including the USSR and the US. The ILO brought together the global working-class community, formulating and promoting internationally recognised labour rights and the first seafarer conventions, she writes. Unions shackled by splits and divisions, were unable to reach out across political divides during this

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time. It was pragmatic union teamwork responding to the containerisation decimating dock workers worldwide that began to heal the rifts. WWF leader Charlie Fitzgibbon, a Labor man, pursued a less political and more industrial agenda, learning from European and US unions, as waterside workers saw technology slash jobs from 27,000 to 5,000 over 20 years. The Flag of Convenience Campaign also crossed the political divide. Whereas the SUA cleaved to the Soviet Union-led bloc the WFTU, the ITF and the WWF moved to the Western union alliance of the ICFTU. But Australian maritime unions on both sides of the fence took part in the ITF Flag of Convenience shipping campaign under Fitzgibbon. Australian union leaders’ elevation to the ITF executive began with Fitzgibbon. The baton passed to Tas Bull followed by John Coombs, who used the union’s position on the ITF executive and its reputation for supporting workers in the Asia Pacific to garner international

support during the 1998 Patrick Dispute. Without global union action, the pickets may not have held and the eventual court victory would have been a hollow one. This radical tradition of global unionism reached its pinnacle with the election of MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin – a key player in negotiations for a Maritime Labor Convention (2006) governing the world’s seafarers – to ITF President in 2010. The MLC or Seafarers’ Bill of Rights is hailed as a watershed moment in the ILO’s long history and a model for other globalising industries. “True-Blue Internationals has successfully pulled off a mammoth task....will take its place as a major contribution to global labor history – connecting labor, legal, race, and history of capitalism themes—even as (maritime labour internationalism) took off from its Australian base,” a US colleague writes. “We simply have no other text that so effectively covers the Indo-Pacific maritime region with such care and complexity.” •

UNION HEALTH PUTTING MEMBERS FIRST. FREEZING PREMIUMS AGAIN.

its members at the heart of its policies and n recognition of the ongoing financial hardship facing many of its members, Union fees,” he said. “We’re entirely owned by our members, who trust us to put profits into Health is freezing premiums for six months. offering competitive products and services.” Union Health will have handed back savings of $7.7 million to members while other funds’ Union Health’s track record of support saw the fund voted in the top two most trusted premiums will increase by up to 5.33% on private health providers in 2021 by Australia’s 1 April 2022. leading independent customer research CEO Rob Seljak said the move was made to agency, IPSOS Public Affairs. ease financial pressure for consumers. MUA members get exclusive access to our top products, Gold Ultimate Choice and Gold “We’re freezing premiums until 30 Easy Choice, only until 30 April!* September 2022 in recognition of the impacts of the pandemic. The premium freeze decision follows our 2020 multimillion-dollar COVID relief package, Scan the QR code to find out more about Union Health today. which included a zero increase, benefits for telehealth services and wellbeing checks for vulnerable members. “It’s a timely reminder before the price hikes on 1 April to check your provider has

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BOOK REVIEW

How best to combat wharfie bashing New book takes a good look at fake news over the ages and sets out what to do about it

“

harfies are not bludgers” is the last thing wharfies, or their union should be saying. Sound counter intuitive? Research shows that all people will hear is the “bludgers” bit. Repeating and rejecting lies and falsehoods, especially on social media, will only help reinforce and spread them. Facts and Other Lies, Welcome to the Disinformation Age by Ed Coper is both a serious and satirical look at the history and psychology of lies. It goes from John Adams winning the unwinnable election in 1800 by simply saying his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, had died (knowing truth in those days travelled slowly) to the perfect storm of social media and algorithms of today that like fast food in a microwave cook up conspiracy theories in an instant. The book looks at the antiVaxxer private Facebook groups co-ordinating “Sovereign Citizen” convoys from Canberra to Cleveland, USA, via fake accounts pumping out “disinformation for hire” from

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Bulgaria to Bangladesh. How fake news goes viral. Facts and Other Lies also examines the history of truth, the news and its death at the hands of News Ltd and media monopolies. How in regional Australia people no longer have newspapers and have little choice but to rely on hearsay and social media to find out what’s going on. How people increasingly club together on social media to shop for tailor-made facts to suit their opinions and prejudices. How confronting people about their beliefs only sets them in concrete. Facts and other lies is a must read for every wharfie, maritime worker and union all too often subjected to lies and vilification. That’s us!

Coper’s book goes beyond telling the story, it is a guide to how to rewrite the story. Coper lived through the Trump era in New York and now lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. He is a founder of Australia’s first online political movement GetUp, worked on Change.org’s global expansion and has advised climate strike leader Greta Thunberg, Pakistani women’s activist Malala Yousafzai – and the Australian Labor Party. •

VALE COMRADE

Fred Moore: Coal miner and comrade Illawarra union champion Fred Moore, who started work as a coal miner at age 14 and never missed a May Day march after World War 2, died on January 21 at the age of 99. He passed away peacefully at home in Dapto with family by his side. Fred’s friends and comrades learned of his passing with great sadness, said MUA Southern NSW Branch Secretary Mick Cross. “Fred was front and centre when this country demanded strong leadership amongst the working class to stay the course through many progressive struggles, both industrially and socially,” Cross said. “And lead he did, with bone-dry wit, respect for all and the best interests of his comrades always the priority. Fred will be sorely missed and never, ever forgotten.” Fred was born in Cobar, started work in the mines in Western NSW at the age of 14, and moved to Dapto in 1952 with his wife, May, and three children. He worked in Nebo Colliery and later Australian Iron & Steel mine. In a joint media release, the South Coast Labour Council and the Mining & Energy Union called Fred the South Coast greatest ever unionist. “The working class, social justice and International solidarity

movements have lost a giant but gained so much from his leadership, comradeship, courage and principle,” the statement read. “He taught us the power of unity and laid the foundations of Uniontown.

Unswerving in his resoluteness and conviction he famously declared: “‘When the workers take to the streets – the streets belong to the workers’.” “When Fred spoke, comrades listened. Decency, unity, respect and justice were not just ends for Fred; they were his means as well. From the southern coalfields, he emerged as leader but was not content with increasing the pay, conditions and safety of miners underground: he led the struggle above ground as well for peace and socialism and an end to racism and exploitation in all its forms. The name Fred Moore became synonymous with solidarity with workers and their communities here and abroad.” Together with emerging first nations leaders, Fred was the “driving force” in establishing the South Coast Aboriginal Advancement League in 1961, the statement said. “It is now regarded as an iconic and formidable actionbased movement which predated the 1967 referendum and Wave Hill walk off and was an integral supporter of both. Fred was one of very few non-indigenous people to have been made an honorary elder of the Aboriginal community in the region.” “The May Day movement, the annual marches, toasts and activities were Fred’s favourite annual events as he took pride in marching at www.mua.org.au

the head of both the Wollongong and Sydney parades and as a life member of both committees. “Fred leaves us a legacy of struggle, solidarity and workingclass leadership that will drive and inspire workers, activists and champions for justice for many generations to come.”

Bobbie McGuffie: Gas Buggy Veteran

and we achieved the outcome we sought. Bob’s experience was the deciding factor. There were plenty more disputes ahead and Bob knew just what to do every time. Once on board I worked with Bob, one on one, for 12 hours a day, four weeks about for several months. During that time we talked a lot about life. Bob had seen a lot and done a lot during his time. From growing up in Wollongong and sailing out of Kembla and his adventures overseas, Bob had led a life that the average Joe would struggle to imagine. Bobbie McGuffie, you will be well remembered and sadly missed. Bill Jackson

Richard Trumka: A great brother and comrade

Bobbie McGuffie passed away on August 3, 2021 at the age of 61. I first met Bob at MUA training school at St Georges Basin NSW in 2004 during the Teekay EBA negotiations. I had heard a lot about Bob from his time on the gas buggies out of Karratha – he was on the Northwest Sanderling for about 20 years. The years passed and Bob joined the Transocean DD1 as bosun in late February 2018. Just prior to that we caught up at the crew induction in Perth. As bosun on our swing, it didn’t take Bobby long before he had the company and the officer sorted out and our MUA crew had our own little place in proceedings. In Mauritius when we were joining the DD1, a blue developed, as they do with unscrupulous ship owners and the discussion quickly got a bit too hot. Bob appeared at just the right moment, calmed the situation www.mua.org.au

Richard Louis Trumka, who died on August 5, 2021 at the age of 72, was president of the USA United Mine Workers from 1982 to 1995, and then secretary-general of the AFL-CIO from 1995 to 2009. He was elected president of the AFL–CIO in 2009 and served in that position until his death. An inspiring and courageous leader, Ritchie was a loyal friend and tireless activist and campaigner for working women and men and their needs and rights everywhere. A person from the people and for the people and a true internationalist. Paddy Crumlin MUA National Secretary ITF President

Ken Rowsthorne: Undaunted by any challenge Ken Rowsthorne, who worked on the waterfront from 1966 to 1994, passed away in August, 2021, aged 91. Ken ended his maritime career at vigilance officer for the Sydney

waterfront, after serving as WWF delegate. In an interview following his retirement he said “My education was on the waterfront. I became a better person because I was on the waterfront. And the men I mixed with made me a better person.” Ken was a committed socialist and a hard-working delegate, activist and trade union official over his whole working life. He brought enthusiasm and unquenchable optimism to everything he did and was undaunted by any political or industrial challenge regardless of the circumstances. This translated into enormous popularity and a charisma that made him always a pleasure to be with. For a large man he was quick off the mark and would cover an enormous amount of territory in his day-to-day union work. He was always slightly breathless and dishevelled from the many tasks he was committed to on a daily basis, but never too busy not to join in a chat and an insight into the nature of the issues we were always challenged with on the job. He never failed to ask after the family, reflecting his own deep values. He was also quick with a witticism and a joke and overlaid his wonderful trade union commitment and belief with a sense of humour and timing that set him apart even on the waterfront well

VALE COMRADE

known for its humour. Over many years he was a great friend and comrade to me as a young activist and subsequently union official and his humorous asides were always imbedded with a point of insight and wisdom. He was indeed dearly loved and respected Ken was not always predictable on what side of a division of opinions he might land but his view always came with weight and respect. He influenced political and industrial decisions at a particularly volatile and confronting period for waterside and maritime workers because of that independence and experience. Ken was always a pleasure to spend company with, a man of great heart and humour, a true socialist humble and always respectful of others and in turn greatly respected by all. He was a true champion of the long, colourful and proud traditions of our waterfront. He will be greatly missed. Paddy Crumlin MUA National Secretary ITF President

Brenton Baker: Patrick veteran Port Adelaide wharfie Brenton Baker, better known as Bakes, started his career as a casual wharfie with Patrick in 1996. He travelled as an unpaid casual over to the Webb Dock peaceful assembly on a bus full of South Australian comrades. That began his early commitment to mateship and the union. After going through the struggle with Patricks in 1998, he transferred to the Adelaide Container Terminal at Outer Harbour in 1999. There he was respected by his workmates for his commitment to the union and attitude towards safety on the job. On 6 March 2021, Bakes, aged 51, lost his struggle with numerous illness that were trying to beat him

from an early age. He will be sadly missed by all his South Australian comrades. Brett Larkin South Australian Branch Secretary

Roy McNair: The Shark

and when asked why he would reply ‘to stop the rats climbing up your legs’. Shark was not only a mate, he was family. We drank together, laughed together and a couple of times cried together. I will miss Roy and never forget his favourite saying – ‘Never forget anything you remember.’ Bob Fiddler Dick Ryan Leo McDonald

John Coombs: Always remembered

Roy (the Shark) McNair was a great unionist and human being. I first met Roy 60 years ago at one of Her Majesty’s finest finishing schools. My first memory of Roy was being in a shower with 10 others in a luxury resort. Roy was in the shower next to me. He had a big tattoo on his stomach of a shark. I nicknamed him The Shark, a name he carried for the rest of his life. Roy was a life member of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers. Along with many of his fellow members he joined the MUA on the demise of the P&Ds. The Shark worked for P&O when that company started operations at Appleton Dock in Melbourne in the mid-90s. He always showed a willingness to help new and younger members, showing them the right and safe way to do things. Whenever there was a fundraiser to help someone down on this luck, he was always there or made a pledge towards it. One of his interests was in pacers; he had a fair bit of luck with one named after him called Moonembelle McNair.n He always wore bicycle clips on his overalls

John Coombs, former national secretary will always be remembered in Australian trade union history as the leader of the MUA during the Patrick dispute of 1998. Thanks largely to John’s work, the Patrick dispute will never be forgotten. It was recognised as a great victory for unions around the world and a greater victory for the Australian trade union movement. I along with the Victorian branch officials worked very closely with John during the dispute that ran for 101 days starting at Webb Dock on January 21, 1998. It was at Webb Dock that members were first locked out and replaced by a non-union workforce made up of former army personal as well as security officers with attack dogs. It was a great victory for John and the MUA when the members at Webb www.mua.org.au

dock returned to work on May 9, 1998. A further great victory for John, the MUA and the Australian trade movement was Australia’s worst Prime Minister John Howard losing his safe Liberal seat when Labor was returned to government. That really showed the doubters the MUA is here to stay.

COVID’s toll on US wharfies

John Higgins Former National Presiding Officer MUA

Phillip Lovelee: Sydney Wharfie Phillip Lovelee (Big Philou) passed away in October. Phil was a wharfie who worked for Conaust in Port Jackson for many years and later at Port Botany. He was a great supporter of the MUA and WWF, well liked and much respected by his workmates and friends. Phil retired early, due to ill health and had been unwell for many years. He is sadly missed.

Roger Williams: Caring for seafarers Roger Williams, a former chairperson of the Sydney ITF Seafarers’ Club (also known as the Boomerang Club) for many years, passed away in March. Roger had a long and close association with the late Tas Bull and they forged a successful partnership to ensure the wellbeing of visiting seafarers. Many seafarers enjoyed the services of the Seafarers’ Club that provided a number of important social benefits and interactions; counselling, contacting loved ones at home, finding spiritual comfort, changing money, accessing the club’s shop, or simply having a good night out and a break from the rigours of shipboard life. Roger oversaw this activity for approximately 20 years. As Chair of the Tas Bull Seafarers’ Foundation, (the successor organisation), I have passed our condolences to Roger’s long-time partner, Marie-Luce Georges who is also our company secretary. Robert Coombs

www.mua.org.au

Rudy Moreno, Local 13 longshore worker, San Pedro, Los Angelos, USA, is one of at least 12 International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members killed by COVID19. “More ILWU members have died from COVID-19 than were lost during Bloody Thursday and the 1934 strike,” said ILWU International President Willie Adams. “We honor their memory and they will live with us forever.” A total of 1,068 members had reported testing positive for COVID-19 by January, according the ILWU magazine The Dispatcher. It published a memorial page with portraits of 10 members killed by the virus, including brother Moreno. Despite these numbers, ILWU members have been loading and unloading cargo nonstop since February 2020, when cruise ships first arrived in West Coast ports with infected passengers. Adams said the union acted

early to negotiate for protective equipment and procedures with employers well before state and federal legislators took action. In doing so, the union “demonstrated that workers united in a labour union have the power to not only make their own worksites safer than they would be otherwise, but also to strengthen the economy and the response to the crisis by keeping the ports open and operating for the greater good,” he said. Despite precautions, contact between workers is unavoidable. Local 94 President Danny Miranda cited shuttle buses between terminals, working together in the hold of a ship, lashing side-by-side, and pulling slings while discharging breakbulk cargo as some of the many ways that contact occurs. Adams said the officers and leaders at every local have since worked through impossible obstacles to secure vaccines for members. •

ELECTION 2022

VETERANS CALL FOR

‘PEOPLE POWER’ ELECTION DRIVE

Report by Fred Krausert, National President of MUA Veterans, on behalf of the National Executive. The report has been edited for space reasons.

his report is an appeal to all MUA members, retired members, families, and friends. In the political arena we face, on so many unfriendly fronts a government that has done nothing but attack the people they are supposed to represent. I am no longer a member of the ALP, but I am a realist and know that we don’t always get what we want from politics. However, I do understand politics and know that if we don’t change this “antipeople” government we will never recover from the damage they have inflicted upon us. Just look at the way they keep on attacking us through the various laws they have introduced; and the deals done with overseas big business and their partners that have us on the back foot all the time. I want an Australia that will give our future generations an “Aussie Fair Go”, not just one class that has it all and believes we can all go to hell. These parasites take from our country but never contribute to it – and pay no tax.

www.mua.org.au

Now I would like to address the pensioners, the unemployed and the hardships they suffer. Once again, we are starting a New Year with so many conversations regarding Covid and all the illness and dying it brings. Our government has completely failed to address the emergency situations as they arise. All they seem to be able to do is lie and play the blame game. There is no national direction with each State running its own course. How are we ever going to navigate through a pandemic or any situation when we only have a “blame game” government and no united front? So many chances have been lost. There has been no forward planning and no direction given. For example, testing was late in coming and is confusing. The German Government says their nuclear power stations will all be permanently shut down by 2030; and they will permanently decommission the seven oldest ones which were switched off following the Fukushima disaster. They will turn their backs on nuclear power and more broadly embrace wind and solar energy generation. However, the Australian government is doing deals with the USA and the UK to procure nuclear powered submarines; and with the USA to supply oil. No deals or agreements to procure merchant ships or tankers –the life blood of this country. Since the inception of this coalition government the people have been under constant attack. The Coalition ignores the homeless, small business and the hundred thousand children who go without proper food, care, and shelter. The lack of public housing and affordable rental properties is not being addressed and is an indictment on the Morrison government. The situation would be much worse were it not for those good people who on a day-to-day basis work to support those in need. This pandemic has highlighted the enormous amount of stress our front-line workers are suffering to the point it is affecting their health. Labor leader Anthony Albanese recently announced Labor’s shipping policy which includes the return of Australian ships, manned by Australian crews, carrying Australian cargoes. Joy to our ears, we say. At the same time, he also said they would deliver a fast train service between Sydney and Newcastle.

I do not have to address our concerns regarding the shipping campaign. I am a great believer that “a face-to-face campaign” pays off – look at our win over WorkChoices which resulted in Howard losing his seat. We can do it again; the ACTU and the whole union movement must get behind the campaign to change this government. We can do this with people power, speaking at shopping centers, regional shows like AgQuip and wherever we are needed. I believe if we do it this way, we stand a good chance of winning the people over. There are 4.2 million pensioners in Australia and not one tenth of them would have a computer, so a face-to-face campaign is a must. There will be more in the coming months from our campaign team – but we must start planning now. Comrades, our health system is under attack. Funding for clinics has ceased and doctors are unable to service the public sector. This Coalition government has cut Medicare and these attacks will continue if Morrison’s team is reelected. The ALP has promised to restore Medicare to its fullest capacity. The ALP also says that under Labor, Australians studying in an industry with a skills shortage will be supported with free TAFE. They also plan to create more university places. On January 1, 2022, the government’s revamped reverse mortgage scheme now known as the Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) came into being. It is still the same old evil con job. Unfortunately, some seniors’ groups have fallen for it – but we ask that you be wary. If there is an outstanding loan at the time of your death, the amount will usually be recovered from your estate. Interest will continue to accrue until the loan is repaid. The main change is the interest rate reduction from 4.5% to 3.95%. I conclude with the cashless debit card. The government has said it does not want to introduce it for all who receive a government payment. I do not believe the government is being honest about this card – more likely it will be high on their agenda should they be re-elected again. Comrades, I call on all of you to please support the people of Australia and our unions to elect a federal Labor government this year. You can volunteer for your local ALP MP or candidate here: https://www.alp.org.au/volunteer We may be retired from the workplace – but never the struggle. •

“If we don’t change this antipeople government, we will never recover from the damage they have inflicted upon us.” FRED KRAUSERT

www.mua.org.au

ELECTION 2022

Election 2022 opportunity of a lifetime This federal election is a chance to bring Aussie ships back to the coast and get rid of bad labour laws

he upcoming federal election is one of generational significance. Not only do we have an opportunity to act on many pressing issues on which the Liberals and Nationals have failed us – Australian shipping, climate change and fuel security, among others. The election is also the union movement’s best chance to ensure the bad legislation enacted over the past nine years is abolished and that we can restore fairness and balance in our industrial relations system. The pendulum must swing back in favour of the workers who have carried us through the past few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers throughout our society must be respected and treated as they deserve to be treated. They deserve a pay rise; they deserve job security and their families deserve to know they will come home safely at the end of their shift. We need a government that takes seriously the challenges that arose during COVID and acts to ensure we aren’t left in such a precarious position again. Our nation must become self-sufficient once again. We must begin building and making things here again. We must restore our domestic shipping capacity to provide fuel and food security for all Australians and to protect us against the massive distortions and manipulations of the global supply chain by foreign shipping companies.

Labor’s pathway to forming a majority government therefore requires victory in 7 unheld seats while retaining all held seats. Over the past year, you would have been bombarded with advertising from the United Australia Party, once more trying to buy an election for the Liberals using the political equivalent of a bait-and-switch. The SMS spam

and billboard advertising they have invested in has cost millions upon millions of dollars, and the people funding it will expect a return on their investment. Most of all, what these people want is for voters who are dissatisfied with Scott Morrison and the Liberals to waste their first preference on a non-Labor candidate who won’t get elected, effectively helping the LNP

“We cannot afford another LNP term in government. We cannot wake up the day after the election wishing we had done more to help.” MICH-ELLE MYERS

www.mua.org.au

The state of the house ALP holds 69 of 151 federal seats Lib/Nat hold 76 seats (i.e., 1 seat majority) The Morrison Government is currently being supported by between 3 and 4 conservative independents (Katter/Haines/ Sharkie/Steggall).

candidate get re-elected in those seats where it’s a close result. It is imperative to understand that since their emergence in 2013, members of the UAP have never once crossed the floor of Parliament to vote against the LNP’s legislation. In fact, they have routinely voted for : cuts to penalty rates; the establishment of the cashless welfare card; changes to maritime security cards to make it harder for maritime workers to get a security clearance; increased workplace surveillance laws in critical infrastructure such as ports; and expanded powers for the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), whose sole purpose is to prosecute union officials who are trying to keep workers safe. They even voted for increased powers for the ROC ( the Registered Organisations Commission) to attack unions and entangle their officials in legal disputes to prevent them from getting out and helping workers. Meanwhile, a new “Voices For” category of so-called independents has hit the scene and is targeting voters around Australia. Like the UAP, they claim to be on the side of ordinary Australians, but you have to ask yourself who they’re there for. It takes a lot of money to run for election. Ask yourself who is www.mua.org.au

funding them, and you will quickly realise where their allegiances are. They are not independent and at some point, they will pick a side. Unless you’re the one bankrolling them, you can never be sure they will pick your side. The MUA is affiliated to the Australian Labor Party, the only political party founded by the union movement. On the ALP’s national executive are officials from unions around the country, including me as the party’s national vice president. The policy platform is good. Not only does it include a new strategic fleet of Australian flagged and crewed ships, it also commits the Labor Party to the removal of the ABCC and ROC, a better deal for families with cheaper childcare, protections for Medicare and a promise to abolish the cashless welfare card. The ALP will also act on the Uluru Statement from the Heart and will put to a referendum the proposal for a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Australian constitution. We have an opportunity at this election like no other time in our lives to be a part of a campaign that will make our country better, so I am asking all members of our union to get involved in any way you can. Scan the QR code on this page

and volunteer for your local Labor candidate. You can doorknock, make phone calls, put a sign up in your yard and hand out at pre-poll and on election day. We cannot afford another LNP term in government. We cannot wake up the day after the election wishing we had done more to help. Please help us get rid of this conservative government, one that wanted to call in the military when wharfies were taking protected industrial action. Please help us get rid of the same government that destroyed our shipping industry and chased our manufacturing industry out of the country. Before the last United States election, now Vice President Kamala Harris told volunteers working to elect Joe Biden, “Years from now, when your kids and your grandkids ask you, ‘Where were you when the stakes were so high?’ you can tell them what you did.” Likewise, I hope you can proudly tell your children that you helped get an Albanese Labor Government elected! In unity always,

Mich-Elle Myers MUA Member 5019582 Vice President Australian Labor Party

O N A M I L MM S NS N O E A A N E L I GGAAGMM AIML ILM EMAENASNNSON O MUA activists joined Gomeroi First Nation leaders and climate protestors outside the Federal Court in Sydney on February 7 to say no to coal seam gas. The Morrison Government has backed Santos in its move to dispossess the Gomeroi people by lodging an application in the Native Title Tribunal seeking to enforced the Narrabri gas field and desecrate sacred lands. All three NSW Branches of the MUA announced in May last year they were prepared to back Traditional Owners, farmers and the community in opposing Coal Seam Gas extraction in Narrabri with “everything they’ve got”. Workers for Climate Action held a meeting after the rally in preparation for the School Strike for Climate worldwide protest on March 25.

GAMIL MEANS NO

www.mua.org.au

ELECTION 2022

“I bloody hope Labor gets in” J

asmine Loades, 19, has worked on the Newcastle wharves for just six months and loves it. The job runs in her veins. Jasmine is a 5th generation wharfie. Her uncle is the union delegate. “It’s pretty cool working with your uncle. A lot of fun. Our family are a very close working-class union family. I see myself staying here. It’s just an honour. I love working with the other blokes. We’ve got 7-8 women working here and lots of young people. I work down the hold, on the fork and I aim to get my crane licence next.” Jasmine says her employer Newcastle Stevedores is a good company to work for, with lots of people jumping ship from Qube/Patrick because the conditions are so much better. The enterprise

agreement got up no drama – unlike Qube. Jasmine wasn’t even born when the 1998 Patrick dispute saw waterside workers locked out nationwide under a Howard Government/ Patrick Stevedores conspiracy, but her uncle told her all about it. “That dispute was crazy. It was so rough for them. We are all so lucky the union is strong. If the current government gets re-elected, we are all going to be in a bit of strife. The Labor Party is strongly advocating for us, for Australian shipping and Australian seafarers’ and workers’ rights. I bloody hope Labor gets in. It will definitely make a difference to our rights as workers. My uncles both go and hand out on polling day at the local school. I’m going to join them.”•

Maritime Workers Journal, Winter 2022

Articles inside

I bloody hope Labor gets in

'Gamil' means 'No'

Election 2022: Opportunity of a lifetime

Veterans call for 'people power' election drive

In Memoriam

Book Review: FACTS* and other lies

Book Review: True Blue

150 Years of Struggle

A meeting of Presidents

US Regulators target carrier fees

Morrison Fails Working Women

Climate Strike

$52B Offshore Clean Up Underway

Outrage Over P&O Ferries Sacking

Seafarers under fire in Black Sea

War Pigs

Poetry from the Picket

Was the Moorebank tender corrupt?

Michaelia's Mob

Rogue Employer

Patrick Deal Brokered

Shipping monopolies jeopardise Australian trade

Why We're Voting Labor

Strategic Fleet

Logging On