8 minute read
Poetry from the Picket
Poetry from the Picket
An 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 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.
“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.
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.
