Mwj autumn winter 2012

THE MARITIME WORKERS’ JOURNAL AUTUMN/WINTER 2012

We stand united with

Auckland Dockers

MUA National Conference 2012

HISTORIC BILLS BECOME LAW:

SHIPPING REFORM SPECIAL EDITION: WHAT NEW LAWS MEAN FOR MUA

INTERNATIONAL DISPUTES: CHEVRON, ALMA, EGYPT, ROTTERDAM, LONGVIEW

CONTENTS

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SHIPPING REFORM: Historic laws pass both houses of Federal Parliament.

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NATIONAL CONFERENCE: 300 delegates gather in Sydney to celebrate 140 years of our Union.

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ON SONG: Meet the winner of our first ever original song comp.

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STANDING WITH AUCKLAND: Vicious dockers dispute mobilises wharfies the world over.

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IRON MONARCH GOES: And with it another chapter in Australian maritime history.

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NT SPECIAL FEATURE: The Top End - from the Muckaty waste dump controversy to the Darwin bombing anniversary.

EDITOR IN CHIEF NEWS, FEATURES & PICTORIAL DESIGN PRINTER

Paddy Crumlin Darrin Barnett Gadfly Media Printcraft

Maritime Workers’ Journal 365-375 Sussex Street Sydney NSW 2000 Contact: 9267 - 9134 Fax: 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 ON THE COVER: Delegates from all over Australia and the world gathered in Sydney in February for the 2012 MUA National Quadrennial Conference. Photo: Jehu Abiram THIS PAGE: MUA National Conference shows its support for Rio Tinto workers in Alma, Quebec. Photo: Jehu Abiram

LOGGING ON

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin with MUA youth representives Sarah Maguire (QLD) and Kyle McGinn (NT) at the May Day March in Oslo, Norway

LOGGING ON

By National Secretary Paddy Crumlin 17 YEARS FIGHTING FROM THE FRONT When the Keating Government walked out of office and Howard walked in on the 8th of March 1996, a war was declared on maritime workers and the MUA. One of the last battles from the declaration of that war was settled in Parliament in Canberra the other night, the 18th of June 2012 when the new pieces of shipping legislation went through the Senate.

A large delegation from the MUA, officers from the AMOU and other long term activists for Australian shipping like Peter Morris were there to see the final debate. Ironically it was 100 years after the first piece of shipping legislation designed to gain independence and proper standards to Australia was tabled. The big difference was the Navigation Act of 1912 didn’t come into force for another 5 years due to it’s controversy, the war and other political factors like Billy Hughes, the PM that ratted. This suite of legislation took 15 days to get through both houses and will come into force on the first of July this year.

That’s not to say it wasn’t opposed. The Hansard record on our website of Parliament on the debate outlines the strong opposition to the Bill from the Conservative opposition , that strenuously opposed it and sought numerous amendments to bury it. This should come as an extreme embarrassment to those officers of the seagoing union that opposed and tried to undermine the process throughout the long struggle to secure legislation to replace the bankrupt, bashed and bedraggled Navigation Act that had seen its day and that had been buggered by Howard through the use of regulations on the issuing of permits for foreign vessels that fatally exposed the weaknesses in the old Nav Act. They whinged the new Act didn’t go far enough, they refused to participate in a genuine dialogue and joining with the MUA and other supporters they mounted a campaign including the use of advertisements in state and national papers bagging the Minister for Transport and the leadership of the union.

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It is the easiest thing in political life to criticise without offering up an alternative that has a realistic chance of succeeding. Fortunately the whingers and baggers didn’t win the day and now share the space with the opposition and the foreign shipowners so far as any positive contribution to rebuild our Australian Merchant Navy is concerned.

The legislation passed the lower house by one vote, an extraordinary political achievement and the Minister for Transport Anthony Albanese needs to be recognised as one of, if not the most, important Transport Ministers in the life of the Australian Parliament since Federation. The legislation provides for a major strengthening of the cabotage provisions remedying the manipulation of shipping data and bare-faced exclusion of Australian shipping that operated under the Howard Government’s use of permits. Foreign shipping can only operate in support of, and not at the expense of, Australian crewed and flagged vessels. The old Nav Act did not require an Australian crew or flag to be licensed on the coast for trading.

And if it wasn’t for the MUA leading the way to the High Court during the Howard years, would not even be required to pay maritime modern shipping award conditions.

Identifying the weaknesses in the old act was one thing - doing something about it is another.

I’m proud to report that the AMOU was there on deck on day one in the great battle to find the political, industrial, public and ultimately legislative solution to our industry and never missed a beat. The Australian Shipowners’ Association was there throughout the whole process but have been considerably depleted by the low number of vessels and the fact that many of its members don’t own ships - they only manage them on behalf of others. This was an inevitable consequence of the extreme duress and damage done to the shipping industry over those 17 years.

Australian shippers were largely involved and sought solutions while naturally concerned about the trend away from Australian manufacturing upon which most coastal shipping relies and

the extraordinarily and unprecedented strength of the Australian dollar which places those industries under more duress again.

So selling the need to maintain a shipping industry that has been presented byTony Abbott and the opposition as killing off those industries, and reaching consensus on an outcome reflected by that one Independent vote, is an outstanding achievement by all concerned. Rod Pickette in particular together with Bill McNally have worked consistently with me and the National Council over the 5 years of the ALP Government and the 3 years preceding that ensuring ALP policy and practical application in Government reflected Australian seafarers’ needs and the best interests of Australian shipping in delivering a new vision, or more correctly realising the old one.

After the Senate vote, the acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan came down with the Minister for Transport Anthony Albanese to meet the delegation of rank and file MUA members and officials who wanted to thank them, the Greens and the Independents for their trust, political determination and support of this great industry. They said that the MUA in particular believed that there cannot be a sustainable, secure and successful economy and national interest without an Australian shipping industry.

The great thing, they said, is that we in turn, along with some notable others convinced the Government and the minority Parliament.

This legislation would not have been achieved without a Labor Government and without politicians of courage and grit like Anthony Albanese. Julia Gillard has been strongly and consistently behind the reforms since addressing our Conference of members in 2008, shortly after the election of the ALP Government.

Now we must move to the next stage of ensuring this legislation serves the purpose for which it was designed. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more hands on the wheel to assist this time around.

FACTS NOT BULLSHIT ON MARINE ORDER 3 Marine Order 3 has been discussed in conjunction with creating a clearer and more transparent set of Marine Orders for seafaring and maritime competencies in Australia consistent with international standards.

It comes at a time of tremendous pressure on the seagoing workforce to meet employment growth,particularly in the offshore industry. The MUA has led the way in challenging the abuses of the Migration Act in the Allseas dispute that is seeking to bypass all Australian seafarers regardless of rank, the disapplication of the Navigation Act and seafaring competancies to Floating Offshore facilities, and the potential abuses of EMAs and actual abuses of 457 visas in seafaring workforces. We have sought to www.mua.org.au

work closely with the other maritime unions on these issues, but have only found the AMOU responsive.

We have consistently offered and remain committed to supporting every maritime union’s right to represent their members and will assist them if required in areas where they have lost coverage. However, the ongoing disgraceful attack on the MUA by the third union’s leadership, claiming that we are seeking to lower competancies and are behind the changes to training in Marine Order 3 however needs clear rebuttal as another flagrant and damaging allegation that is designed to be, and is, false and misleading, mostly to their own membership in order to drum up a fear campaign it seems.

For the record again, as clearly articulated publicly on numerous occasions, the MUA supports the right of each union to determine proper competancy standards and has never commented in any way on any other training standard except those ones held by our members. To publish allegations to the contrary with a view of turning their membership against the MUA is a disgrace.

As the old arab proverb goes, the dogs can bark but the caravan must continue to go forward to its destination.

TOUCH ONE TOUCH ALL We have been closely involved in assisting the Maritime Union of New Zealand to fend off the application of anti-union laws in the Port of Auckland. A number of MUA delegations went to the picket lines and we have given financial and other moral support as determined by the National Conference of members. I met with Mayor of Auckland and have been to the Picket prior to the workers re-entering the terminal after their successful injunction in the courts. I have also met, as the Chair of the ITF Dockworkers, with a number of shipping companies trading to that port carefully outlining the importance that they respect those industrial rights of those dockers as Auckland had been declared by the ITF a Port of Convenience for anti-union behaviour. The progress being made in negotiations has been heartening and it seems the Port of Auckland management has begun to bargain in good faith for the first time in this round. The MUA and all international dockworkers however have an eye open to the developments and hope management don’t have a change of heart.

In Longview, Washington, in the US Big Bob McEllrath is facing criminal charges for opposing the breaking of an ILWU contract, and manning a picket line. He was on the front of our MWJ and addressed our Conference of members on the issue , receiving a standing ovation and commitment to support. I reinforced that a little while ago at the ILWU trienneial Convention where Bob, Willie Adams, Ray Familathe and www.mua.org.au

Wesley Furtado were all elected unopposed to another term as the ILWU International leadership. We had a delegation of officers and rank and file there and will be sending more to Longview together with Dockers from all over the world to let Big Bob know he’s not standing in the dock alone and that if he is touched then so are we all. In a tough, dangerous and demanding industry, dominated by international shipowners and stevedoring companies, dockworkers and wharfies have never been so united.

SAME STORY DIFFERENT SOURCE It’s good to see how all of us in the labour movement equally share in the determination to rebuild and renew our world order through a commitment to the values of fairness, equal access and honest and transparent dealings.

The HSU leadership in the Eastern Branch are a disgrace and need to be excised from the body of their movement like the small but malignant tumour it has clearly become so that the workers in that tough employment sector can have the support they deserve and pay for.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

MAY DAY, MIGHTY DAY May Day has long been a day for celebrating the values of the labour movement, along with our remarkable history of success in striving for a better and fairer society worldwide and in our country.

Unfortunately there is a view espoused about the place that somehow being involved in or advocating workers needs is the equivalent of a conspiracy against the new world order.

The neo-conservatives contend there is new political paradise class differences that have been eliminated and there has been a new era of opportunity ushered in where, a wonderful world benevolently overseen by market driven capitalism and free trade resulting in unlimited wealth that flows from this well spring of the fortunes of a few to the tables of the many.

The same media and political tossers responsible for this gormless guff also articulate that the dysfunction and travails of the world today can largely be put down to small fundamental religious belief cliques hellbent on terror or criminal recidivists that should be locked away in prison for good, theirs or society’s. If the gaols are over crowded, privatise them, or better still escheat them.

Anyone that objects to any of this are part of the problem not part of the solution.

This dark Alice in Wonderland version of reality is fondly stimulated by media megalomaniacs, neo conservative politicians and corporate leadership driven by the twin fuel injectors of self interest and elitist collaboration.

Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and Dick Cheney all great advocates. John Howard, a lieges light, still did his bit to keep up with them.

They created a corporate leadership distinguished by extraordinary self gratification in their remunerations and lifestyles where success is measurable in unimaginable personal. The resulting negligence and corruption that caused the Global Financial Crisis were a mere temporary aberration in this lollypop land. Where banks and a gluttonous financial system are the new churches of opportunity and trust and faith in them the fervent bywords of this new material aspiration of the faithful. Have faith and you will be rewarded.

Racism and xenophobia are nurtured in this blame game. Fear of the foreign is an old and discredited political ploy.

Sexism and other social discriminations are also fruitfully gardened as responses to concerns about unemployment and limited opportunity. Mechanisms and attempts to redistribute our material and social management are belittled, beleaguered and bemoaned by this powerful elitist thinking.

Working men and women being pitched against each other is the perfect distraction from the embedded corruption of the new world order.

In Australia, a Federal opposition so bankrupt politically that they do not even feel obliged to make an alternate proposal other than trying to destroy the parliament of the day.

When we turn to on May Day we are making our statement of truth against these lies and self serving and artificial dissembling of that truth. Our contention is this world, this life, this workplace and this family has the same rights for all at its moral centre.

May Day is just not assembling and having a march, although that is important; it’s the political commitment that comes from an understanding of the true crisis we are facing in our country and the world today.

The crisis is that we may lose meaningful control of our economic and political lives in the face of this massive cynicism, making it almost impossible to regain It’s a crisis that will continue to excuse murder and mayhem as a legitimate state endeavour in war and as a source of wealth and investment opportunity, while simultaneously denying billions of human beings entangled to a greater or lesser degree in poverty, lost opportunity, unfunded illness and ignorance directly fuelled by exhausted publicly funded education systems.

Where does this insanity come from? Where will it lead us? Did you make your stand on May Day? I did in Oslo Norway amongst those so deeply touched by a savagery against children and young workers born from racism that is an inevitability in a world managed by what divides us and not what is common between us.

Workers have marched against this insanity for generations on the first may, and every indication is they will need to for many to come.

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SHIPPING REFORM

HISTORIC SHIPPING REFORM PACKAGE FINDS SAFE PASSAGE

MUA National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin, holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra as the shipping legislation passed the Lower House.

Ten years of planning and negotiation bore fruit when the Australian Government’s Shipping Reform Package bills were passed by the House of Representatives in May.

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fter passing the Senate on June 18, the Australian Government’s landmark Shipping Reform Package bills have ushered in a new era for the industry.

The reforms will create employment, sustain business opportunities and productivity and build the national interest through an industry that has always been and always will be critical to the quality of Australia’s economy, environment and way of life.

Following an impassioned speech in support from Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, and other Labor members Jill Hall, Sharon Grierson, Melissa Parke, Deb O’Neill, Tony Zappia, Richard Marles and Independant Bob The Australian Government’s Shipping Reform Package: • Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill 2012 • Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2012 • Shipping Registration Amendment (Australian International Shipping Register) Bill 2012 • Shipping Reform (Tax Incentives) Bill 2012 • Tax Laws Amendment (Shipping Reforms) Bill 2012

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Katter, the package of five bills (see Box) moved to the Senate, with the package coming into effect from July 1.

Minister Albanese laid out the significance of the Bills in his speech: “When this mob [the Liberals] took over in 1996 we had 55 Australian vessels, now we have less than half.

Either we do this today and get it done, or the Australian shipping industry is done. Without reform the Australian shipping industry will disappear.”

The reforms have the support of both unions, employees and business and all speakers cited the hard work of the MUA and especially its National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin.

Mr Crumlin, speaking at Parliament House after the vote, declared it was “an emotional day for Australian merchant seafarers,” and welcomed the passing of bills that “secure the future of Australian shipping”.

“This is an extraordinary suite of legislation. There has not been legislation in this industry of this kind for 100 years when the Navigation Act came into force. This will be legislation that takes us through the next 100 years in exactly the same way.

“It is a vision of great scope. It is legislation of great detail. It is rooted in the foundation of experience because we are a seafaring nation and the Labor Government has recognised that.

“The union generally and myself

personally have been at the forefront of the campaign to ensure that shipping and Australian seafarers have a future in this country,” said Mr Crumlin. “We’ve been working on this since the election of the Howard Government. They destroyed Government support for the Australian shipping industry in their first weeks in office back in 1996. As a union, we’ve fended off What do the Bills do? The package has four key elements: • a simplified three-tier licensing framework for participation in the coastal trade, ie: restoring fair cabotage, which will greatly reduce foreign FOC ships operating on our coast; • establishment of a genuine national flag through the Australian International Shipping Register, putting Australian companies on a level footing with international competitors • establishment of a Maritime Workforce Development Forum to progress key maritime skills and training priorities.

• a zero corporate tax rate similar to the European tonnage tax systems to remove barriers to investment in Australian shipping and to foster the global competitiveness of the shipping industry.

www.mua.org.au

the campaign to destroy the Act and the industry by conservative shippers, foreign ship-owners and the Federal Opposition.

“The work of Minister Albanese cannot be overstated. As maritime workers have said, he deserves the Order of Elliott Healy (EOH) named after Elliott V. Elliot and Jim Healy, the legendary leaders of the Seaman’s Union and Waterside Workers Federation.”

Mr Crumlin said Australia’s quality of life as a trading nation has been built on our ability to crew ships and to move our exports and our imports in a safe and efficient and productive way: “That’s what’s got us through the last 200 years, and what’s going to get us through the next 200 years is exactly the same commitment.”

“What’s happened today is that business, the employees and government have come together in the national interest. We’ve determined that we are a shipping nation, and that shipping nation is to productively and efficiently move Australian cargoes to our own advantage, and to do it in a fashion that is the world leader and not the world follower.

“The government has demonstrated that FOC shipping can be defeated and that all seafarers have a right to work in the industry.”

Executive Director of the Australian Shipowners Association, Teresa Lloyd, was also strong in her support for the legislation: “I just want to say that the shipowners are ready to invest and this is a great day in terms of a new era for Australian shipping.

It’s been very difficult to compete for at least the last 15 years, and that’s seen the industry shrink to an almost unsustainable level.

“And today is a fantastic day and the shipowners are quite committed for their investment decisions and they’re looking forward to expanding into new trades, into www.mua.org.au

new international opportunities that have never been available to us before.

“We think it’s a fantastic thing and we thank the Minister for all his efforts to make it happen.”

The bills represent over 10 years of work by the MUA, and follows endorsement from members at the 2012 Seafarers’ Conference and 2012 National MUA Conference. Mr Crumlin said this was the biggest maritime reform since the passing of the Navigation Act 100 years ago: “What Australia has

“The biggest maritime reform since the passing of the Navigation Act 100 years ago.”

Paddy Crumlin

done today is shown the way in international shipping. Cabotage is back on the menu for seafarers worldwide. These bills not only protect the national flag on Australia’s coastline – they privilege it.

The five bills that represent the legislative package give a zero company tax rate to shipowners as an incentive to flag their vessels with the Australian flag. This will go towards ensuring that Australian seafarers have a future in their own country, and that cabotage is enshrined.

Mr Crumlin, who is also President of the International Transport Workers Federation, laid out the international significance of

the laws: “The support of the ITF was also critical to the political will to enact these wide-ranging and internationally important reforms, and the ITF is enshrined in this legislation,” said Mr Crumlin. The legislation also provides a model for regional labour cooperation, introducing an Australian International Shipping Register, “which is profoundly different to a second register,” Mr Crumlin added.

“The register will provide for regional workers from the Pacific and Timor Leste to work on Australian flagged ships under Australian collective agreements to ITF standards. The MUA supports this position. It provides the opportunity for regional seafarers in East Timor, in Papua New Guinea, in those islands under environmental threat of the South Pacific, all seafaring nations to join in and build the Australian shipping experience to their advantage, their national advantage, their community advantage.

“We now call upon other nations around the world to look to Australia’s example and work to protect their own national fleets, cabotage and workers – so that we can do away with flags of convenience forever.”

ITF General Secretary, David Cockroft, commented: “This breakthrough and the recent decision on reflagging fishing vessels in New Zealand shows that unions are continuing to prove that, even in a globalised world, the need is for responsible shipping that has genuine ties to those who work on ships and the wider populations that they serve.

“To the best of my knowledge this is also the first time that ITF minimum standards have been specifically incorporated into national law,” Mr Cockroft noted.

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FPSOs

SEAFARERS CONFERENCE

FPSOS:

JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT OUR JOBS, QUALIFICATIONS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

We report on our campaign to save our offshore oil and gas industry from the potentially drastic consequences of actions of companies like Woodside.

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SHIPPING REFORM CENTRE STAGE AT SEAFARERS’ MEET NATIONAL SEAFARERS’ CONFERENCE, 25 – 26 NOVEMBER 2011, TRADES HALL, SYDNEY

Opening address by MUA National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin, Friday 25 November

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elcome to delegates, it’s great to see such a healthy attendance and participation in the vital issue of shipping reform. I hope all delegates have come with a willingness to listen and enter into debate, considering what is best for the union as a collective and not the individual.

I believe we are poised with a choice that will determine the future for all Australian seafarers and indeed the future of shipping in Australia. This conference is about securing our industry – not losing out. If we do nothing – we are gone, like almost every other merchant navy in the world.

At this point I acknowledge the crucial importance of dockers in working to protect seafarers - working with seafarers in collaboration on the FOC and POC campaigns.

There is currently no international law to protect the international rights of seafarers – this is why we – with other global unions - led the charge for the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). As seafarers we work beyond the reach of domestic law – and thus we need the ability to take strong industrial action wherever we are in the world.

Anti-secondary boycott legislation is pervasive around the world – it has a strong negative effect against our unions in stopping us from taking industrial action to protect our rights. It takes away our only power as our work is often beyond the reach of the law.

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Our framework for survival must be internationally led, but with a strong national focus. This is why we have to lead internationally and build international unionism – not a soft coalition, like that that let down the Liverpool Dockers, but a truly strong, militant, international unionism.

This is why we as the MUA made the decision to intervene into the ITF to revitalize organized, militant unionism around the world – to join and rebuild with the international dockworkers and seafarers around the world.

We need to combat the multinational, linked shipping lines, ports, and terminals around the world. To combat global corporations we need global unionism – an active, political, militant, cooperative unionism.

Coastal shipping in Australia is decline, partially due to its close alignment with manufacturing. The decline of Australia’s manufacturing sector (particularly Whyalla, Port Kembla, and Newcastle) has seen a major decline in coastal shipping. As manufacturing has changed the types of ships have changed.

More than ever, Australian seafarers are up against an increasing domination of FOC crews - due to wage costs and deregulation of the international market. We have also been facing a neoconservative, government agenda to attack and take down militant unionism.

There is a large and fundamental difference between the second registers seen in Europe

and the cabotage of Australia – the European unions opposed the reforms that occurred and were out-manoeuvred. These second registers are also fundamentally different to the proposed international register in Australia.

The difference between a second register and an international register are crucial. We now also have the MLC, which will protect standards worldwide. Crucially, the MLC will mean that protections and standards are enforced by the port state, not the flag state.

If we can’t build an international foundation for fighting back, we can never fight and win our battles domestically. Almost every ship comes into our country on a FOC / second register who have no regard for cabotage. This was especially the case during the Howard years as we as seafarers faced ongoing attacks from Government. The union had to fight continuously to defend what we had.

We now have the capacity to build a union that has never been seen before – a regional federation that builds power and unionism across the entire region. This ability to organise and unionise an industry across geographic boundaries and has previously always been beyond our reach. This regional federation will hopefully mean joint resources for legal, strategy, research, support, and solidarity: not an amalgamated union, but federated.

[Edited transcript] www.mua.org.au

s members know, the offshore oil and gas industry is a dangerous place to work. There is always the potential for safety incidents – one wrong slip can cause a severe crew safety issue, or a dreadful environmental outcome.

Off the north west shelf of Australia is our country’s main offshore production site. However this is also one of the worst cyclone spots in Australia – ‘cyclone alley’.

Fortunately, the marine and production crews aboard Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels are highly trained and qualified workers. The Offshore Alliance – MUA and AWU – work together aboard FPSOs, with the MUA representing marine crew and the AWU representing production and construction workers.

But companies like Woodside are moving to systematically de-skill the marine personnel aboard FPSOs, replacing IRs with crewmembers who have undergone a 2-week ‘marine safety’ course.

Why? To break the back of the MUA in the offshore, and get rid of MUA negotiated collective agreements. This has been shown clear as day aboard the Nguyima-Yin FPSO which is moving owners from Maersk to Woodside.

Currently, the FPSO is managed by Maersk and the crew are under a collective agreement. But Woodside has bought the FPSO and has made all the crew redundant.

The new crew will not be under a collective agreement, and existing crew are not eligible to apply for jobs under Woodside.

All the workers – including AWU, AMOU and AIMPE members – are out of a job.

Simply for being highly qualified and union represented.

In place of the current crew, Woodside will change the manning requirements so that the marine crew are no longer IRs – but workers who have undergone a ‘marine safety’ course.

This has potentially drastic consequences for safety, the environment and the future of the Integrated Rating qualifications.

If Woodside is able to get away with this we could see this happen aboard ANY FPSO, run by ANY company.

So why is this able to happen?

The issues surrounding this crew change are complex, but come down to a crucial regulatory and legal issue: when an FPSO www.mua.org.au

is attached to the sea bed (usually through piping) it is not classified as a ship. When it is not classified as a ship, the Navigation Act – which dictates safe manning and crew qualifications – no longer applies.

This means that companies like Woodside can get away with changing the manning and qualifications requirements.

What are the dangers?

A lack of experienced and trained marine crew can have drastic consequences in the offshore. There have been numerous accidents in offshore vessels, including the Karratha Spirit which saw a tragic loss of life of an MUA member.

In addition, in 2009, Australia witnessed its worst even oil disaster through Montara.

Qualified crew aren’t just necessary for effective work – but also to ensure that accidents don’t occur, and that our environment is protected.

In a wider context, de-skilling the offshore has the potential for drastic consequences in terms of the IR qualification more widely, and the overall safety and regulation of the offshore industry.

MUA takes action The union is taking action on several fronts.

We are working with AMSA and through Government to try and close the loophole for when the Navigation Act doesn’t apply.

In addition, rank and file members from around the country are lobbying the Minister personally through email and letter writing, as well as getting active in worksites with their comrades and fellow union members from other unions.

The other offshore unions are supportive of the campaign, as they know how important high quality marine skills are aboard FPSOs. No one wants to work aboard a vessel where there aren’t qualified marine crew.

Get Involved!

Get online to access resources including flyers for worksites and a petition. You can also send an email to the Minister, asking him to take action and close the loophole. Go to: www.mua.org.au/campaigns/protectour-qualifications-on-fpsos/

Open Letter We condemn Woodside for their relentless and dangerous drive to deskill their FPSO’s (floating production, storage and offloading vessels) by removing the Marine Classification, and with it the need to maintain IR’s onboard as part of a minimum safe manning.

Our Job requires enormous amounts of seamanship and involves huge equipment which has the potential to kill the inexperienced. These skills are learnt as part of the IR training process over many years.

As you know the marine crew are an integral part of the safety on board any ship – especially on FPSOs in a location like Exmouth where cyclones are guaranteed.

Who is going to be driving the cranes lifting loads over a live crude oil processing plant and securing items that could blow overboard into the ocean?

Who on board will be qualified to con the vessel in the event we disconnect from the turret to escape a cyclone that is closing in ?

A non union production operator that got his crane ticket last week to work the supply boats?

A blow in that got his watch keeping ticket from AMSA last week from a 1 week course?

AMSA is complicit in accommodating the Woodside agenda with total disregard for marine safety. Someone flown out at short notice that has never stepped foot on the vessel before?

Ngujima-Yin is the largest FPSO in the world - 1.2 million barrels and is moored right next to World heritage Ningaloo Reef.

The general public and environmental agencies have a right to know what the possible implications are and the reasons behind the marine declassification and subsequent removal of key personnel (marine crew) and how it could undermine safety standards on FPSOs operating in environmentally sensitive areas like the Ningaloo reef.

Apart from an ideological agenda to smash unionism and collective agreements, Woodside have a blatant disregard for the unique coastal environment here in WA. All the highly experienced core crew on Ngujima-Yin will be denied their jobs ( sacked ) simply because we choose to work under a collective agreement which does not fit the so called Woodside “ New Model “.

Another case of profit before people and the environment by Woodside.

In Unity MUA Crew Ngujima - Yin

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CHEVRON

EMAs

MUA WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT ON AS COURT CLEARS FOREIGN WORKERS As the Federal Court rule that foreigners are working outside the migration zone, your union is setting up the campaign against the blatant visa rorts that strike at the heart of our livelihoods.

WA unions and citizens brought central Perth to a standstill to protest against Allseas’ actions.

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n a shock ruling, the Federal Court has deemed that foreign workers building the $43bn Gorgon/Jansz-lo gas project off Western Australia are working outside Australia’s migration zone and therefore will not need to apply for Australian work visas.

Justice Neil McKerracher in the Federal Court in Perth said he was satisfied that the Lorelay and Solitaire vessels, operated by Allseas Construction, were not “resources installations” as defined in the Migration Act. The court’s decision was narrowly defined to apply only to the two vessels deployed by Allseas Constructions while they are building the Gorgon/Jansz-lo project under contract to Chevron.

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The issue of foreign workers has been controversial in Western Australia, where the dispute over those on the Gorgon project flared into a protest march in November in which 1000 union members jammed central Perth as they accused Allseas and Chevron of employing the workers illegally.

In his decision, Justice McKerracher rejected the Immigration Minister Chris Bowen’s contention that there was no issue and the court did not have jurisdiction. He also noted none of the Attorneys-General had sought to intervene in the case.

The Maritime Union of Australia’s WA branch called on the Federal Government to amend the legislation and close “a loophole”

the union claimed had stripped foreign workers of Australian workplace standards and put Allseas’ Australian workers at risk of losing their jobs to cheaper counterparts.

MUA WA secretary Chris Cain said the ruling had “wide ramifications” for construction, mining and maritime workers.

“The loophole should be closed so that no foreign company can come into the country and exploit foreign workers at the expense of Australian jobs,” Mr Cain said. “We’re going to fight them right to the bitter end on this.”

“Chevron says it is all about local jobs for Australians on our massive resources projects,” said MUA Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray.

“Yet the Chevron contractor Allseas started proceedings in the Federal Court to test whether work done on the North-West Shelf could be exempted from the Migration Zone.

“Not only that but they have the audacity to try to ban inspectors from the Department of Immigration from properly investigating their vessels until the case is adjudicated.”

Chevron and its contractors have previously been caught using dodgy foreign labour in the Gorgon project in WA rather than hiring Australian workers.

“This is yet another disgraceful act from a company with a poor record in this area,” said Mr Bray.

MUA WA Deputy Branch Secretary Adrian Evans said: “All we are asking is the right for Australians and their communities to benefit from the resource boom. We want to ensure that these good jobs go to local workers, that our communities benefit from the flow-on effects, and that our kids are given training so they can have jobs in the future.

“The resource boom needs to benefit Australians – not foreign backpackers.”

“This is yet another disgraceful act from a company with a poor record in this area.”

Ian Bray, Assistant National Secretary

www.mua.org.au

MANDATORY JOBS BOARD FOR EMAS The brouhaha over Gina Rinhart’s $9.5bn Roy Hill iron ore project has flushed out a ruling from government to protect Australian jobs...

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s the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers faced off at Patersons Stadium in May, there was something literally in the air that caused division.

The Maritime Union flew a banner over the stadium to protest against the Federal Governments decision to allow 1700 workers on billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore project in Western Australia.

The MUA joined forces with CEPU, AMWU and CMEU in the protest against a government taskforce that recommended the enterprise migration agreements in early 2011.

While unions were included in more than a year of talks to finalise the migration policy, they mobilised against the Roy Hill decision and pressed Julia Gillard to institute the national jobs board to help companies find local workers.

The MUA’s major concern has now been addressed with the Government’s announcement that it would be compulsory for companies to advertise on a jobs board before applying for an EMA. WA Assistant Branch Secretary Will Tracey, said the Government had previously been silent on whether the jobs board was a compulsory step in the EMA process. “We wanted to make sure local workers would get the first opportunity,” Mr Tracey said.

WA Branch Secretary Chris Cain said that while disappointed with the performance with some ministers on the matter the union www.mua.org.au

welcomed a review mechanism and proper accountability on the EMA assessment process. He also said that the Unions will still rally on July 4 in Perth despite resource companies’ commitment to employ Australians first on major projects.

“Earlier this week a statement was made by the Offices of Chris Bowen (Immigration), Bill Shorten (Employment and Workplace Relations) and Kate Ellis (Employment Participation) where they gave assurances that companies wanting to import workers via the Enterprise Migration Agreements scheme will now be required to use the new jobs board so that Australians will be given the first opportunity to apply for jobs and training,” said Mr Cain.

“As we well know, the devil is often in the details, and the MUA along with the other unions’ national offices will be monitoring how the jobs board will work. It needs to be mandatory for the jobs board to be used in a real and meaningful way before any government approvals to import workers to make up for any identified skills shortage.”

Your union sends Gina Rinehart a message in the skies above Perth in May.

“Resource companies have been saying that their preference is to employ locals for the jobs on these mega-resource projects. We want them to make a public commitment to support Australians looking for work in the resources sector by saying that they will be using the jobs board for all vacancies.”

“This is why all of we, along with our Comrades from the other unions, will be rallying on July 4: to make sure that the finer details of how the jobs board will work are clear, and to get a commitment from resource companies that they will be using the mandatory jobs board to secure the working future for local workers, their families and communities,” added Mr Cain.

Although unions were able to negotiate for a jobs board that gives local workers opportunity to apply for jobs before outsourcing to foreign workers’, new challenges lay ahead as the MUA pushes for greater restrictions, not only for the Roy Hill project in the Pilbara but for Chevron’s A$37 billion dollar Gorgon gas project in Western Australia.

“We want (companies) to publicly commit to support Australians looking for work in the resources sector by saying that they will be using the jobs board for all vacancies.”

WA Branch Secretary, Chris Cain

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SEAFARERS

SEAFARERS BILL OF RIGHTS LOOMS AS AUSTRALIA SIGNS MARITIME LABOUR CONVENTION An universal seafarers’ Bill of Rights moved a step closer with Australia’s ratification in December of the Maritime Labour Convention

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n a landmark move for local seafarers, Australia has lodged its ratification of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva. The Australian permanent representative to the ILO, Greg Vines, lodged the documents with the ILO on Wednesday 14 December 2011, making us the 22nd nation to ratify.

Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) National Secretary and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) President Paddy Crumlin applauded the ratification as an outstanding achievement in international relations and said the MLC will support the future of the global shipping industry.

“The Maritime Labour Convention ensures that seafarers have their human and labour rights recognized alongside existing standards of safety, security and crew standards,” Mr Crumlin said.

“By lifting international minimum standards, the MLC promotes fair and decent work, with more than half the world’s seafarers now covered by ratifying nations.”

The Convention was adopted by the ILO in February 2006, but to become international law, the MLC has to be signed by at least 30 member states and represent at least 50 per cent of the world’s gross tonnage of shipping. The latter condition has already been exceeded, with states representing over 56 per cent of world shipping tonnage signed up Australia being the 22nd to ratify, with just

“By lifting international minimum standards, the MLC promotes fair and decent work, with more than half the world’s seafarers now covered by ratifying nations.”

Paddy Crumlin

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eight more countries are required to sign up to bring the convention into international law. The ILO expects the remaining eight ratifications to be gained this year, enabling the MLC to come into force in early 2013.

Mr Crumlin was elected as a workers’ representative on the final negotiating committee at that historic ILO Conference and spoke at the Plenary Session.

“The extraordinary interest and support for the new Bill of Rights for seafarers reflects both the appalling lack of rights for ships’ crew and the terrible exploitation they are all too often subjected to,” he said. “The strong vote reflects a worldwide determination to now provide enforceable labour standards. It is a watershed in the shipping industry.”

The MLC sets standards for: • minimum requirements for seafarers to work on a ship; • conditions of employment; • accommodation, recreational facilities, food and catering; • health protection, medical care, welfare and social security protection; and • compliance and enforcement.

Although the Convention will target the sub-standard labour conditions on many international ships, it will also provide a valuable boost to Australian shipping and complements Australian shipping reform.

“The introduction of the Maritime Labour Convention is part of the Gillard Labor Government’s ongoing commitment to restoring our capacity to participate in the shipping trade,” Mr Crumlin said.

“With the passage of the MLC, labour conditions will be protected for all workers and policed by Australian authorities in our ports.”

Mr Crumlin also highlighted the importance of the MLC in fighting the ITF’s ‘Flag of Convenience’ campaign.

“The convention will address the worst features of the FOC system by codifying international safety standards, human rights, trade union rights and labour standards,” Mr

MUA WILL FIGHT INCURSION ON WHARFIES’ RIGHTS MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin has expressed concern that wharfies have been unfairly targeted by an AFP crackdown on waterfront crime.

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Australia’s ILO Permanent Representative to the ILO, Greg Vines presents our ratification of the MLC to Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the ILO’s Labour Standards.

Crumlin said.

MUA Assistant National Secretary, Warren Smith says the MLC will empower Australian maritime authorities to inspect ships and regulate crew conditions on board.

“We see (the MLC) as playing a vital role in creating a level playing field and reducing the exploitation of workers,” said Mr Smith.

“We see also a background of increased stress in maritime work practices which has an impact on jobs and the social security of seafarers.”

Mr Smith said the MUA has long been advocating the consolidation of various seafaring ILO conventions to protect seafarers from the rotten apples in international shipping.

The Convention is vital and necessary in implementing decent work for the globe’s 1.4 million seafarers.

It is unique in that it establishes legally binding standards accompanied by directions set out in guidelines. • www.mua.org.au

he Federal Government’s proposed reforms to tackle waterfront corruption have been condemned by the Maritime Union of Australia. Under the proposed legislation, police will be given new powers to ban workers from the docks if they’re suspected of being involved in criminal activity.

The Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare acknowledged the measures are controversial but says they are needed given federal agencies claim they’ve uncovered disturbing links between dock workers and organised crime.

“We’ve got serious criminals targeting and trying to exploit the waterfront, and this is a major crackdown on organised crime on the waterfront. In my book, it’s not good enough to hang around and wait to get that information. If someone is importing heroin into the country, you’ve got to get them off the dock.” said the Minister.

Maritime Union of Australia National Secretary Paddy Crumlin expressed concern that wharfies have been unfairly targeted by the AFP crackdown: “This announcement raises more questions than answers. They’re getting counter-terrorism mixed up with law and order. Any scheme needs to be transparent and consistent with high standards of human rights and justice principles.

“Roughly 30 per cent of ships in the domestic transport sector have foreign seafarers with no background checks. This was not covered by Taskforce Polaris or in the Minister’s statement this morning and is another serious flaw in the stated methodology of dealing with both terrorism and crime prevention.”

While the Union supports comprehensive efforts to reduce crime in the Australian import /export and supply chain sector, Mr Crumlin said there was no case for focusing solely on the stevedoring workforce.

“The overwhelming majority of the stevedore workers are law abiding and today’s measures are targeting innocent people and their livelihoods,” Mr Crumlin said.

“Of the 16 arrests made since July 2010, only one person was a waterfront worker, and another a former waterfront worker, so there is a bigger picture that we need to focus on.

“Weaknesses in crime detection have been identified in the sector including customs, quarantine and private sector management of freight forwarding and stevedoring.

“The MUA is committed to the elimination of any crime in the small part of the sector in which we have influence but we question whether Maritime Security Identification Card (MSIC) is the right tool.”

At the time of introduction, the MSIC and Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC) were focused on preventing terrorist attacks rather than serious and organised crime.

“The whole issue of organised crime is more endemic, it is in areas where the MSIC card doesn’t apply. Thirty per cent of the ships on the Australian coast trading between Sydney and Melbourne don’t have MSIC cards and have foreign seafarers from the Ukraine, from Russia, from the Philippines, from all of these countries that haven’t any background checks. The Polaris report and the Minister are silent on that.

“That’s the area that organised crime is thriving – in the container parts, in quarantine,

in customs. Waterfront workers are under more scrutiny than Ivan Milat - 24 hours a day, seven days a week under CCTV, and we are the most scrutinised workforce, and we are screened against terrorism and a whole lot of other things.

“The MUA is yet to be convinced that the ASIC and MSIC schemes should be extended to the prevention of non-terrorism related crime and we question the use of criminal intelligence on ethical and legal grounds,” Mr Crumlin said.

“The burning question for us is whether they will apply the MSIC scheme to seafarers on coastal voyages and to other areas in the supply chain and what other measures they are taking for criminal intelligence on foreign crews,” Mr Crumlin said.

Ports of Australia CEO, David Anderson, sympathised with the MUA: “We share Paddy’s concerns around some of those civil rights issues,” he told ABC News.

Mr Anderson said the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report suggested measures that are “really starting to infringe on people’s rights. ... using Intelligence that’s a bit vague or based on hearsay. It’s very important that we do not intrude into that area where we are grossly infringing people’s lives.”

Australian Criminal Lawyer Nick Boyden was also critical of the proposed reforms: “The phrase ‘compelling criminal intelligence’ should set off alarm bells for anyone in Australia.” Mr Boyden said.

“In my experience criminal intelligence is often somewhat of an oxymoron, it’s often based on hearsay and innuendo. It’s often obtained under compulsion from witnesses from various crime commissions across the country.”

“The main concern is these poor workers – the MUA should be horrified, because there will be an allegation that we will have this compelling criminal intelligence on a certain worker.”

“You’re fired, you won’t be able to find out what it is, generally. There will be this wall of secrecy that goes up, public interest in it will be claimed if you take it to the courts. So, quite often it could be a back door to get rid of workers they simply see as undesirable.” •

“They’re getting counterterrorism mixed up with law and order. Any scheme needs to be transparent and consistent with high standards of human rights and justice principles.”

Paddy Crumlin www.mua.org.au

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NATIONAL CONFERENCE

GIVING BACK

Minister Anthony Albanese was guest speaker at the Conference dinner

140 YEARS FIGHTING FROM THE FRONT! 2012 QUADRENNIAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

TAS BULL INTERNATIONAL AID PROJECT

TBIA reflects the tremendous spirit and commitment to internationalism of Tas Bull himself.

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he Tas Bull International Aid Project was initiated by the MUA who have been leading the way in international aid causes over many years. It was established in 2006 in cooperation with Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA) in memory of Tas Bull -- the former Union Rank and File Seafarer & Wharfie, JDA representative, General Secretary, Vice President ACTU, President of APHEDA, ITF Vice President and a great internationalist who dedicated his life to national and international causes.

The TBIA Committee has been revived and is an important part of our union’s work. In the past through this committee we have raised thousands of dollars and assisted hospitals in Cuba, women in need in Timor Leste, schools and AIDS orphanages in South Africa and more.

TBIA has established projects in South Africa, Cuba, PNG, Timor-Leste, Zimbabwe, Samoa, Cambodia and Vietnam. The initiative has been very successful and has achieved great results such as the Ons Plek Project and at the Christian David Morarian School, both in South

Guests at the TBIA Exhibition in Melbourne in November 2011: From left, Peter Jennings from APHEDA, Anders Bull, MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, Peder Bull and TBIA Chairperson Jim Tannock. Anders and Peder are both sons of the late Tas Bull and MUA members.

Africa, and the William Soler Hospital in Cuba.

In early October a delegation of MUA officials and members visited Capetown South Africa on behalf of the Tas Bull Foundation.

The delegation travelled out to a school in a troubled area, to which the Tas Bull Foundation had previously sent two 20 ft containers filled with books and other materials. These containers have also been put to use.

“The Project is a great celebration of working class solidarity and union culture. Through this, the spirit of Tas Bull lives on.”

MUA National Secretary, Paddy Crumlin 12

The visit was a real eye-opener as these kids came from the poorest townships in South Africa and they were subject to extreme poverty and violence on a daily basis. The delegation also had the opportunity to visit Ons Plek, a girls’ refuge on the outskirts of the city. It was shocking to see one young girl of 13 was nursing a one-yearold child. We later found out that the young girl had been raped.

Ons Plek provides support for girls on the street through shelter and empowerment programmes and makes a huge difference to those most in need at the grass roots level. It is the only intake shelter for girls in Capetown and provides girls’ basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, education and support.

Our members have joined forces and outfitted a shipping container and converted it into a kitchen facility installed with plumbing, etc, which the ITF then shipped and placed in a school that needed buildings in one of the poorest towns you could imagine.

We use all of our connections and alliances to assist people less fortunate than ourselves.

TBIA’s work is only possible through the generosity of our patrons, in particular, MUA branches, rank & file members, other unions, individuals and employers and the hard work of the many people involved.

• Get involved by joining our Facebook page. Just search “Tas Bull International Aid” on Facebook. www.mua.org.au

With the nearly 300 MUA delegates and 100 international guests, the 2012 MUA Quadrennial National Conference proved again the strength of our union and our bonds with the global union movement.

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eld on the occasion of our union’s 140th birthday, this year’s Quadrennial National Conference was declared an overwhelming success by National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. The 2012 MUA National Conference reviewed the outcomes of the 2008 Conference resolutions and the work done over the last four years. This ensures that our policies remain in the centre of all union work and is the first stage of developing further policies for the next four years.

The union is strengthening and expanding on our existing work and developing new policies due to new areas of work and other developments.

Since the 2008 Quadrennial there has been a great deal of change for the better, both on the domestic front and internationally. However there are still some issues that continue to plague the union movement. Militant employers pose a constant struggle that we continue to fight on a daily basis, cabotage is short of protection, and workers are still lacking proper safety legislation. All of this and more was addressed at the National Conference.

Domestic issues of particular interest are the move to a National Occupational Health and Safety Code, and a regulatory framework for stevedoring, new legislation and enhanced protection for cabotage and against the domination of foreign shipping in our overseas trades (Shipping Reform), the use of guest labour offshore, www.mua.org.au

the consolidation of the Fair Work Act, the removal of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and the challenging political circumstances resulting from the deep divisions within the Labor Party over leadership.

Internationally, the Conference heard reports about the many struggles by organised labour worldwide, and out of those reports formulated further policies to strengthen our international networking based on promoting our job security and the right to organise and collectively bargain.

This fitted like a glove into the Conference theme of ‘Organise, Unite, Fight’.

The Conference covered key areas of union work including international solidarity and the increasing use of technology and automation. The Conference zeroed in on technology and automation as an employer strategy to remove strong unions from the stevedoring industry. Conference determined that an international forum should be held later this year of key dockworkers’ unions around the world to identify the issues and develop counterstrategies protecting ongoing worker participation and preparing the youth of the MUA to ensure that the union continues to fight from the front.

Reports were received from some of the recent disputes including the Ports of Auckland dispute, and the Longview picket line in North America, together with the circumstances confronting, European,

Japanese and other dockworkers dealing with both port privatisation and the increasing influence of Global Network Terminal (GNT) operators like DP World, Hutchinson, APM and Port of Singapore.

The Conference further considered the Ports of Convenience campaign in deflecting these attacks along with the ongoing importance of the Flag of Convenience campaign seeking to protect national flagged seafarers, particularly in developed economies such as Australia and the USA. Cabotage particularly featured in these considerations with international guests from Brazil also identifying their critical campaigns to provide national jobs in the domestic shipping sector.

The new Shipping Reform legislation in Australia was discussed as a major development in protecting seafaring jobs.

This legislation is expected soon to pass the Australian Parliament.

National Secretary Crumlin updated the Conference on the further development of the shipping legislation since the Seafarers’ Conference in November 2011, including the work done in the area of regulation of cabotage trades, training support for Australian seafarers and the taxation arrangements attracting new investment to the industry. Some of the international guests were from the Pacific region and they warmly welcomed and congratulated the union on the initiative to provide quality jobs for their national seafarers in the proposed Australian International Shipping Register while accepting that the strategy was also directed at strengthening the cabotage arrangements for the protection of Australian resident seafarers. These regional unions are committed to working with the MUA and supported the union’s

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Militant employers pose a constant threat/ challenge “that we continue to fight on a daily basis, cabotage is short of protection, and workers are still lacking proper safety legislation. coverage of any Ratings jobs in the new AISR. The ongoing strategies to continue the growth in membership of the MUA was highlighted, recognising the great work done by the union in growing by over 10% in the last 12 months. Matters in relation to OHS more generally were emphasized, particularly training and increased competency, including through the consolidation of METL and the use of EAS to stabilise the supply of labour to the industry in a fair and accountable way.

Reports were received on the union’s bargaining strategy in all sectors and the problems confronting maritime workers in Australia’s two-speed economy, where tremendous growth has been registered in the commodities and mining areas, particularly in hydrocarbons, while the manufacturing and retail sectors of the economy remained in serious decline. This inevitably has a negative economic impact in many of the industries covered by the union but particularly in coastal shipping and stevedoring that are very closely aligned to manufacturing and public consumption both through import and exports as well as between Australian ports.

A number of speakers from the Australian trade union movement were in attendance and spoke to the importance of continuing to build on the leadership the MUA has shown in the area of national alliances in hydrocarbons, transport and construction and further identified that this work particularly in freight forwarding was essential to the protection and development of all workers affected in the sector.

Strongly unionised freight forwarding in shipping, ports, stevedoring, road and rail is essential in defeating the campaign against organised labour in this sector.

The MUA Conference was preceded by

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International guests and MUA delegates were present for the opening of the new ITF Sydney Office. The Ribbon was cut jointly by ITF General Secretary David Cockroft and ITF President Paddy Crumlin

a Mining and Maritime Conference, an initiative that recognises the militant and historic link between mining unions around the world and maritime sector unions and was developed through the MUA invitation to attend a Mining and Maritime Conference in Newcastle in 2002. Other conferences immediately prior to the Quadrennial Conference included the Youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Women’s Conference The Veterans’ Association held their conference on the Tuesday and Wednesday where the National Secretary also recommitted the union to working with them to strengthen the protections to working Australians in retirement regardless of economic and social circumstance.

Guests from the ILWU Pensioners Association in the USA were also guests at the Veterans’ Conference.

A full session was held with the National Secretaries and Senior National Officers of the TWU, CFMEU, AWU and AMWU where there was a frank discussion about the importance of the trade union movement, asserting that the Labor Party’s responsibilities were to working men and women and generally discussed how the relationship between the

trade union movement and the Labor Party could enhance those protections. This panel discussion was held at the same time that the leadership ballot between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd was taking place in Canberra.

A delegation from FNV Holland, representing dockers in the Netherlands, reported on the initiative launched at the 2008 Quadrennial Conference to force the international financial company Aegon to return the funds that they had refused to pay out from the Dutch dockworkers pension plan.

Large amounts have already been recovered and the whole Conference attended a rally outside the local Aegon offices demanding that they make good with the rest which was widely reported internationally including the Netherlands.

Many areas of campaign policy were discussed and endorsed including a campaign against nuclear dumping in the Northern Territory, the campaign against violence, bullying and harassment of women in the workplace and the White Ribbon campaign, the ongoing campaign against the anti-union activities of Chevron in Western Australia and a special session on Rio Tinto’s anti-union activities in the international mining industry, most recently in Alma, Canada.

Further reports were received on the ongoing successful development of the Maritime Mining and Power Credit Union and Maritime Super. The union’s determination to ensure the protection of retirement income is demonstrated by developing strong support for direct investment in Australian infrastructure projects particularly in ports and transport that would both protect and enhance community life while delivering solid, longterm and predictable investment returns to Australian workers and their families.

The Federal Minister for Transport Anthony Albanese left Parliament on Wednesday evening and flew to Sydney to address the MUA Conference dinner and then immediately returned to Canberra due to the ongoing savage debates and divisions in Parliament. In his address, he reiterated his personal commitment and that of the Labor Government to rebuilding the Australian shipping industry, particularly around the protection of jobs and the creation of new job opportunities for Australian seafarers in domestic trades.

His comments were welcomed with a standing ovation on the conclusion of his speech. Over 650 delegates, friends and supporters of the MUA were in attendance at the conference dinner which celebrated the 140th year of the Maritime Union of Australia.

The national conference was an overwhelming success with a high level of interactive participation clearly cementing the MUA’s position as a strong force in the trade union movement both nationally and internationally. The union will take all the resolutions passed forward into the next four years. • www.mua.org.au

LETTERS OF SOLIDARITY On behalf of the Seafarers International Union of North America, I extend our warmest fraternal greetings as you conduct the important business of your National Quadrennial Convention. Your theme says it all: Organize, Unite, Fight!

Those three words capture the essence of trade unionism all around the world. Organizing is our lifeblood; solidarity is the key to our efforts; and we certainly have to battle for every single gain, large or small.

Fraternally, David Heindel Vice President Secretary-Treasurer Seafarers International Union of North America We have with great pleasure seen positive changes taking place in your country as a result of the working class being united in defending their rights.

We salute the MUA with the election of Paddy Crumlin as ITF President and hope that the longstanding friendship between the MUA and 3F will develop to the mutual benefit of our members.

Long live international solidarity, Jan Villadsen Faglgt Faelles Forbund United Federation of Danish Workers Since the 2010 mid-term elections in the US, a large section of the political establishment is out to destroy unions. In the last year we have confronted the ‘War on Workers’ by standing up to politicians who do the bidding of their corporate donors. And we won’t be on the sidelines in our national elections this fall; we will Organise, Unite and Fight for workers, our families and our community.

In Solidarity, James P. Hoffa General President International Brotherhood of Teamsters I noted MUA Executive Team’s passion and professionalism in handling union issues www.mua.org.au

in the Conference. It was a great time to meet with union members from around the world and share commonality issues. There were important issues to learn; cabotage, IR, membership levy rationing, etc. etc. It has been a wonderful experience very informative and appreciating the struggle you foresaw that we all share.

Your Comradeship, Inoke Wini Ratotodro President Fiji Maritime Workers Association I know that our brothers and sister in New Zealand are also fighting attempts to casualise their industry and that you at the MUA have recently had to contend with militant tactics by private employers DPW who threatened to lock them out of their own port.

These battles are being fought by dockers around the world and our only chance to fight back and survive the attacks by these multi-national companies is to build strong unions and international solidarity.

Proud to be a Docker!

Terje Samuelsen Chair of the Dockers’ Section Norwegian Transport Workers Union We remain firm in our view that it is very necessary that we continue to develop ways of working closer together.

It is imperative that our organisations stand united against the forces of global capital in attacks upon the working class and, in particular, against attacks upon port workers around the world.

Yours in solidarity, Antolin Goya IDC General Coordinator International Dockworkers Council Our affiliation with MUA under the ITF umbrella started decades ago and has matured into a cohesive and strong bond between brothers and sisters in the labor union movement that freely advocates

mutual respect and reciprocal cooperation between workers and employers, and views the government as a partner in nation-building towards progress.

Fraternally yours, Dr. Conrado F. Oca President Associated Marine Officers’ And Seamen’s Union of the Philippines

secretary, Paddy Crumlin, is now also the ITF president, and a key international maritime personality, and the MUA and Paddy Crumlin also have a very strong standing at home. Thus the MUA sets an example for the rest of the maritime unions around the world: and SEKO strongly believes that this is widely acknowledged.

Fraternally yours, Tomas Abrahamsson

De-regulation, privatization, neo-liberal policies and globalization have led to catastrophic results for the maritime workers of the world. In this situation, their trade unions must stay strong both at home and abroad. There is now no way to defend the worker’s interests by concentrating your efforts only in the domestic scene: to best defend maritime workers, you must act internationally: and to do that, you have to have a strong national base!

This is a paradox many trade unions is trying to cope with today. One union that has been extremely successful in doing so is the MUA. The MUA national

MUA delegates were a credit to their branches and fellow comrades with their engagement throughout the entire conference

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ANTHEM

SONG WINNERS KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY There was a fantastic response to the MUA’s first ever original song competition.

“OUR MUA” From wood and sail to steel and steam Ships of shame and press gang teams To free market, privateers Broken backs, slavery and tears

Now walking home from the hungry mile Slinging the hooks was just their style Open cargo / muscle power Working for less than 2 bob for an hour.

Cold as death in the lower decks Midnight shifts on a stinking wreck Chris Swayn performs his winning song at the MUA National Conference Dinner

The winning song brilliantly illustrates our history, our ideals and beliefs today and the music will inspire our members for many years to come.

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lthough the MUA is one of the oldest trade union in Australia, we have never had an anthem or musical identity. In the past, many songs have been written about the MUA (including the famous ‘Roll On’ by the Living End in 1999) but the union definitely needed a song of it own.

We were looking for an original song that best captures and expresses what the union is and does. The song could be an anthem, a call to arms, an inspirational theme or an evocative, modern ‘sea shanty’.

Judged by Midnight Oil front-man turned Federal MP, Peter Garrett, the composer of the winning entry received a cash prize of $5000. Eleven finalists were chosen from numerous entries, with the winning entry being “Our MUA”, by the father and son team of Barry (lyrics) and Chris Swayn (music).

The winning song brilliantly illustrates our history, our ideals and beliefs today and the music will inspire our members for many years to come.

Barry, 30 years rank-and-file working wharfside in Melbourne and Western port Bay, is now retired and is a life member of the MUA. Barry is also a poet and has written lyrics for his son’s songs for more than a decade. His son Chris, a music teacher, said he “played everything” on the track and knocked up the music in “a couple of hours”.

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www.mua.org.au

www.mua.org.au

For we are proud and we are one Hard fought conditions /duly won Stand united / we stand true The MUA it works for you, (yes all of you) shouted At first it was our federation That gave us wharfies some salvation the Maritime Union of Australia To so many has become a savior Throughout the years we felt the pain nothing ventured nothing gained arbitration, negotiations we worked the ports of an island nation We stood tall on the picket line rally the cause we’d march in time For we are proud and we are one Hard fought conditions /duly won We stand united / we stand true The MUA it works for you, yes all of you We drew a line into the sand Valued the effort of the working man the 8 hour day we made our stand fairness for all it’s a simple plan A world divided by oceans wide has maritime workers side by side

Chris is building a house and says he’s “spent my share of the prize already.”

Chris met Peter Garrett at Port Botany and the two spoke at length “as muso to muso, we didn;t talk politics.” Minister Garrett told MWJ that choosing the winning song was difficult, due to the high quality of the entries.

And We are proud and we are one Hard fought conditions /duly won We stand united / we stand true The MUA works for you, yes all of you We are proud and we are one Hard fought conditions /duly won We stand united / we stand true The MUA works for you, yes all of you Lyrics by Barry Swayn

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MEMBERS

INDIGENOUS

“The MUA has given me a community to belong to and a larger voice for me to connect with other women, divers and maritime workers.”

NEW NATIONAL ATSI COMMITTEE Your union now has a national committee to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues.

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n January, at a meeting in Sydney, the Maritime Union of Australia formed its first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) National Committee.

The committee is formed of rank and file members who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, representing branches of the Maritime Union throughout Australia.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin currently represents the MUA in the ACTU’s indigenous committee and has been involved in ATSI activism in the union movement for many years. However, despite the MUA’s proud history of being involved in, and supporting, indigenous activism, this is the first time the union has established its own national committee on the issue. The union has been engaged in indigenous rights issues throughout its history, and this work will now be formally directed through the rank and file committee.

“I am delighted to have witnessed the formation of this historic committee,” said Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray. “This committee is not just a ‘talk-fest’. The committee has already made significant plans for activism in both indigenous rights and workplace issues.

“And I am pleased to announce that rank and file activist Paddy Neliman, a wharfie from Townsville, has been elected unopposed as the ATSI committee chair.”

ATSI committee chair Paddy Neliman

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welcomed the union’s decision to formally set up a structured committee.

“We will be actively taking up the struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights both industrially and in the wider community,” said Comrade Neliman.

“I am excited to be working with comrades from around Australia who have a great depth of passion, experience and professionalism in the work that they do. All the members of the committee are already active in their workplaces and communities, and this committee will allow us to better direct our work on the national stage.

“I look forward to working with the committee into the future.”

The committee members are: James Crookall (QLD), Ian Bray (Asst National Secretary), Patrick Neliman (QLD), Roger Pickett (WA), Paddy Crumlin (MUA National Secretary), Wesley Walley (WA), Peter Palancio (NT) and Thomas Mayor (NT).

MUA members and officials who formed the first National ATSI Committee: James Crookall (QLD), Paddy Neliman (QLD), Ian Bray (Assistant National Secretary), Roger Pickett (WA), Paddy Crumlin (MUA National Secretary), Wesley Walley (WA), Peter Palancio (NT), Thomas Mayor (NT)

“We will be taking up the struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights both industrially and in the wider community.”

New ATSI committee chair Paddy Neliman www.mua.org.au

THE NEW FACE OF UNION DIVERS(ITY) Meet Sarah Jane Pell, commercial diver, artist and proud member of the MUA.

W

hile women make up just 5 per cent of the MUA membership, this is changing. Take Dr. Sarah Jane Pell, a commercial diver in a very much male-dominated profession. For Dr. Pell, the MUA holds a special connection and a family bond.

“My grandfather was a clearance diver working in Port Phillip Bay, near Williamstown.

He was in charge of the ordnance of the S.S. Kakariki. He had come from the mining industry and was asked to devise systems to help dispose of this wreck.

“He devised his own lifeline and navigation systems with string and knots, he also adapted his own breathing apparatus.” said Pell.

Like her grandfather before her Dr Pell builds her own equipment and breathing apparatus – hers is also incorporated into her artwork. “I want to share in a whole world that some people don’t get to see,” she says. “Not just the sea life, but some of the experiences of being a human being and going underwater, to confront your own breath, or

www.mua.org.au

Dr. Sarah Jane Pell

Union 9030014 • ADAS 2r Occupational Diver.

• Atlantica Expeditions Undersea Habitat Mission Crew.

• Co-Chair, European Space Agency Topical Team Arts & Science 2012.

• Founder, Aquabatics Research Team, Australia 2002-2008 Singularity University, Silicon Valley.

• International Space University, Strasbourg.

• Phd Visual Arts, Edith Cowan University, Mt. Lawley.

• MA Human Performance, Victoria University, Melbourne.

to be confined in a small space and confront some of the space around you. For me that is a beautiful space but for others it is very challenging.”

Onshore divers like Pell are often working with greater variables in terms of risk, and with lack of security and regulation.

As a woman and an independent contractor Dr. Pell highlighted the importance of having union backing: “For me there is a great difference between onshore and offshore diving. The onshore industry is not as regulated, however it is improving steadily.

“We are an independent crew and I believe it is important when working as an independent crew. It becomes almost the only insurance that we have. And as a woman in a male-dominated environment, (the union) is important to me and has given me a platform to connect with other women in the maritime world who appreciate the political and social climate in which they work, who understand the demands of working in the natural environment.

“There are 2000 people per day who work underwater worldwide, but there is not that much connection between us unless we are linked through organisations such as the MUA,” added Pell.

“The MUA has given me a community to belong to and a larger voice for me to connect with other women, divers and maritime workers.”

19

SOLIDARITY

Auckland Wharfies perform the Haka.

Left: The people of Auckland show their solidarity. Right: Paddy Crumlin addresses the picket line.

WE STAND UNITED WITH THE AUCKLAND DOCKERS The Port of Auckland is the latest flashpoint in militant employers’ relentless campaign to bust our unions and force scab labour on to our ports. After PoAL’s mass sackings of 300 MUNZ members, workers all over the world are stepping up in solidarity with the Auckland Dockers...

T

he Australian trade union movement has always stood in solidarity with our Kiwi brothers and sisters, in war and in peace, through our common struggle for fair conditions and decent pay. Now its time to organise, unite and fight with our

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trans-Tasman comrades as they face an unprecedented attack from bosses and the Key Government. It’s been compared to our own Patrick dispute of 1998 in terms of its significance for maritime workers and the support it has ignited in the community.

As we go to press, workers facing the sack in the Port of Auckland have been given a temporary reprieve after a court granted an interim injunction halting management outsourcing plans.

Ports of Auckland Limited (PoAL) plans to make 300 workers redundant and outsource their stevedoring work. But, after the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) argued that the dismissals are illegal, New Zealand’s Employment Court has ruled that PoAL cannot take any further steps in www.mua.org.au

the redundancy process prior to a judicial settlement conference on Monday 19 March.

This conference will look into whether it was legal for PoAL to sack its workforce while in ongoing negotiations over an employment agreement for those positions.

Meanwhile international solidarity with Auckland workers is stepping up a further gear with protests and pickets taking place outside New Zealand embassies and at ports worldwide.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) entered a bargaining period with the Ports of Auckland (PoAL) last year, asking for very modest wage increases and certainty of conditions.

Unfortunately neither party was able to reach an agreement. Instead what played out was blatant employer militantism on behalf of www.mua.org.au

the Ports of Auckland Corporation, which is a public entity wholly owned by the Auckland taxpayers.

MUNZ PoAL members lifted their strike notice after being on an all-out strike since 24 February, bringing the port to a virtual standstill.

At least three out of more than 30 ships called in to PoAL terminals to have cargo worked by non-union labour. However, these cargo operations were interrupted and unsuccessful in their attempts to have the cargo worked. The remainder of the ships were seen fit to bypass the Port of Auckland.

Those ships that have used the non-union labour in Auckland were targeted in subsequent NZ ports, with port workers and stevedores refusing to handle them until court injunctions compelled them to work

the cargo.

Importantly, due to the non-union labour working the ports and the behaviour of the employers, Auckland has now been declared a Port of Convenience.

During this time, advertisements appeared in Australia for stevedoring workers in Auckland. Ports of Auckland says it was a “recruitment agency’s mistake that has seen it advertise for workers in Australia.”

On 8 March MUNZ members at PoAL received their termination notices.

MUNZ is probably the most powerful and well-organised union in New Zealand and now that Ports of Auckland has sacked over 300 MUNZ workers, it is expected to move to contract out all of the services.

We can expect that the broader New Zealand employer community will take

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SOLIDARITY MUA NATIONAL CONFERENCE RESOLUTION:

ABOVE AND BELOW: Auckland’s good citizens joined trade unionist in a mass rally protest PoAL’s brutal actions.

CENTRE: A community picket was held at Port Botany to express solidarity with comrades in Auckland.

“Two things are without doubt. One is the determination of MUNZ and Auckland’s wharfies to sort this out and get the port working properly again... The other is that POAL’s management has treated this whole operation so catastrophically it has become an international debacle and an embarrassment for the city.”

Paddy Crumlin

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Carried by Plenary Moved. Paddy Crumlin 6005242, Seconded. Mick Doleman 6002899

notice of PoAL’s success and that a wave of challenges to unionised workforces will spread across the country. This already seems to have started with another meat processing company locking out its workers in pursuit of flexibility and productivity.

As this is a political dispute, we suspect that PoAL is being used by the National (Conservative) Government to provoke a dispute likely to generate sufficient public opposition to militant unions and workers to facilitate the government implementing anti-union and anti-worker changes to existing labour laws.

So far this tactic has failed as the public relations campaign being coordinated between MUNZ and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has succeeded in swinging public support behind MUNZ and PoAL workers and their families.

This is in part due to PoAL being owned by the local authority and therefore the Auckland ratepayers who are generally unsupportive of casualisation, privatisation and the stonewalling by PoAL in progressing settlement of the collective agreement.

There is also international significance to this dispute because privatisation, casualisation, the resultant undermining of health and safety and the possible introduction of Global Network Terminal Operators (GNTO) are all pillars upon which the ITF’s Ports of Convenience Campaign are based.

GNTOs are to varying degrees anti-union and in all cases not prepared to engage the union movement unless compelled. They also have the capacity to use efficiencies from their international networks to distort local competition thereby threatening other unionised port operations in the country.

The ITF met with management to express its strong opposition about POAL continuing to operate as a ‘port of convenience’.

In his recent address to the ITF Dockworkers Section Conference in Jordan, ITF President Paddy Crumlin stated that the pressure must be turned up on employers who are guilty of unionbusting as well as offering full support in a show of solidarity to MUNZ and the Port of Auckland dockers.

Mr Crumlin met with Auckland Mayor Len Brown and let him know this sort of behaviour by employers is unacceptable.

He also addressed a rally of workers at the port. www.mua.org.au

“The 2012 Quadrennial Conference of Members confirms our unequivocal support to the Maritime Union of New Zealand, morally, financially, politically and industrially in defeating the introduction of contract labour onto the Auckland Waterfront (Ports of Auckland) and further supports MUNZ in their struggle to remove the existing nonunion contract dockers and replace with ITF Affiliated Dockers.”

www.mua.org.au

23

INDUSTRIAL

SOLIDARITY

Q

EBA UPDATES The turned over mafi trailer.

PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR NEW STEVEDORING CODE OF PRACTICE A recent workplace accident has highlighted yet again the urgent need for a code of practice for stevedoring safety.

Deputy DeputyNational NationalSecretary SecretaryMick MickDoleman Doleman addresses addressesthe thepicket picketline linein inAuckland Auckland..

‘‘

AUCKLAND MUNZ RALLY, MARCH 2012

MUA Deputy National Secretary Mick Doleman reports from the front line in Auckland

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conditions than the union conditions that apply there now,. This has all of the elements of the 1998 Patrick lock-out and the union movement in New Zealand with the support of Helen Kelly of the CTU and many others throwing their weight behind MUNZ. Ray Familathe and a team of 16 officials from many ILWU Locals in the US also attended the rally and messages of support were acknowledged from ships and workplaces from Australia and around the world.

I had the great honour to speak at the rally on behalf of MUA members and officials and indicated that we would stand shoulder to shoulder with our Kiwi comrades until victory is at hand.

For obvious reasons all the tactics we exercise in such massive disputes are of a global nature and are not necessarily obvious to everybody, for good reason.

MUNZ is very appreciative of the effort and solidarity the global union movement has delivered, in particular that of the MUA. I was able to indicate to the crowd that Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary and ITF President. had committed $100,000 to the MUNZ Fighting Fund and we will continue to raise funding to assist those workers.

Garry Parsloe, President, MUNZ has written to Paddy in appreciation of the support and continued solidarity going forward. We will continue to update the membership as regularly as possible.

‘‘

On Saturday 10 March I was fortunate enough to be the in the good company of 28 MUA members from around the country with some 7000 Aucklanders, many of them with no association with the Port of Auckland but supportive of the struggle MUNZ members were having with the Port Corp. The Port is owned by the local government of Auckland, and the Mayor who ran on a union-friendly campaign has turned his back on the community and in particular the union movement and MUNZ. “The Port and its CEO has sacked the workforce of more than 300 and has employed two contracting companies Drake and AWF Group who will rehire workers on much lower terms and

www.mua.org.au

An MUA member was hospitalised following a workplace accident at QUBE in Fremantle.

A worker sufferd a dislocated shoulder but it could have been a whole lot worse when the vehicle he was driving tipped when loading the ro-ro Tamesis. The mafi trailer was reportedly carrying 47 tonnes of mining machinery up the ramp when it overturned.

Members guiding the load up the ramp were forced to leap out of the way to avoid being crushed.Witnesses said other workers in the vicinity had to run for their lives and there could have been two or three deaths.

“I think the company failed dismally in its responsibility to its workforce,” WA Branch Organiser Matt Elliott said.“I’m sick and

tired of employers telling us everything is okay but serious safety incidents keep occurring on the waterfront and they have plenty to hide,” added Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith. Issues behind the crash include the incorrect stowage of the load, which was weighted to one side, and flexing of the ramp at the join which culminated in the load toppling over.

Alarmingly, reports from the scene indicate that workers raised concerns about the safety of the load at the time, but were instructed to proceed. MUA Safety and Education Officer Matt Goodwin stated that employers have been found lacking when it comes to members safety: “At the recent high level meeting to discuss the stevedoring code of practice, QUBE was particularly vocal in refusing the most sensible inclusions in the new code of practice,” Workcover is currently investigating the incident.

TOOLS FOR DELEGATES AND SAFETY REPS The union has launched new tools for delegates and safety reps, including a national Ship Deficiency Register to report ship defects, and an online Incident Reporting Page.

The Ship Deficiency Register is checked daily, with the details of dodgy ships passed on to delegates and safety reps in onward ports.

Making a report is easy and takes about 5 minutes. You can access from any computer or your phone. Simply go to the MUA website follow the prompts.

www.mua.org.au

DP WORLD AND PATRICK TERMINALS EBA negotiations have been agreed and finalised with DP World and Patricks terminals.

Agreements had went to a vote and have been endorsed by the workers. National officials report that “both agreements reflected positive outcomes for the workforce”.

QUBE An EBA is yet to be reached with QUBE as there are still a couple of issues outstanding. High level discussions and drafting for agreed issues are well underway.

PATRICK BULK & GENERAL Still not resolved. Both parties have agreed to go to Fair Work Australia to resolve the one outstanding issue in Part A.

For more information contact MUA National Education and Safety Officer Matt Goodwin matt.goodwin@mua.org.au.

MUA training program The MUA is rolling out an updated program of training courses for delegates, safety reps and members. The expanded program includes delegates level 1, 2 and 3 courses, health and safety training, and a dedicated one-day course for delegates at sea.

All courses now include sessions on MUA history and culture – the things that have made us strong and successful for 140 years.

Courses are scheduled in all states.

Check the website or contact your local branch.

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OFFSHORING FAN MAIL LETTER ITF Youth Summer School Edward Dunne reports.

SCRAPPING OF IRON MONARCH A KICK IN THE GUTS FOR MARITIME WORKERS The MUA has described the selling and subsequent scrapping of veteran vessel the Iron Monarch as a “kick in the guts.”

A

familiar sight to many, the ageing vessel has plied the waters between Port Kembla and Western Port in Victoria for almost 40 years, carrying steel slabs for owner BlueScope Steel.

The 40 year old ship manned by an Australian crew made its final voyage to Singapore, before being scrapped in April.

Maritime Union of Australia southern NSW branch secretary Garry Keane said it was a “sad day for Australian shipping”.

The SNSW Branch Secretary said that announcement meant around 60 additional job losses in seafaring and stevedoring at Port Kembla, following on from the 130 jobs lost as a result of the company’s restructure last year.

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“The MUA believes that there were feasible ways to keep the operation running. We don’t understand why Bluescope has scrapped a vessel on which they have just spent $17 million,” Mr Keane said.

The 10,584-tonne vessel, built at BHP’s Whyalla shipyards in 1973, received a $17 million overhaul last year but was only used for a short time before being taken out of service.

BlueScope announced it would sell the slab-carrier in January after the closure of its Western Port hot strip mill, which meant steel slabs were no longer required.

The company decided to transport hotrolled coil to the Victorian facility by rail, rather

than a “prohibitively costly refit” of the ship.

“So BlueScope’s decision to send their coil by rail basically saw the death knell for the last example of Australian shipbuilding on the coast,” Mr Keane said.

“It’s just very sad to have witnessed an iconic old vessel that’s been in this port for 40 years sailing away for the last time under an Australian crew.”

Mr Keane understood the ship had been sold for $4 million to $5 million, although BlueScope did not confirm the figure.

He also said the union believed the decision to transport steel by rail was “flawed”, a sentiment echoed by Iron Monarch crew members yesterday.

A spokesman for the ship’s manager, Teekay Shipping, confirmed the vessel’s two crews of 17 would be redeployed to other www.mua.org.au

The Iron Monarch sports her new colours at Port Kembla in June 2011, following a $17m overhaul in Singapore.

“It’s just very sad to have witnessed an iconic old vessel that’s been in this port for 40 years sailing away for the last time under an Australian crew.” ships in the company’s fleet.

Mr Keane said many could end up further away from their families.

Colin Johnston had been working on the Iron Monarch for 16 years and says the announcement came as a shock to the ship’s crew and stevedores.

He says the weekly round-trip aboard the Iron Monarch meant the workers could see their family more than most in shipping jobs.

“There ‘s one of the blokes who has been here since the ship first came out and a lot of www.mua.org.au

the crew who have come through have spent a lot of years on board this vessel because of the actual privileges of being able to get home and seeing your family and being a homeporter,” he said.

“I’m still in shock over it and I can’t believe that after they’d just done the major drydocking and life extension on this vessel to turn around and cease with slab and not to convert this ship to carry coil, it’s got a massive impact on me and the crew on the vessel and also our family.” •

Hello comrades, in October 2011 I attended the ITF Youth Summer School in Madrid along with 42 other participants made up of ITF staff and Union representatives from around the globe. The theme of the Summer School was Education for Organising.

The sessions during the week which we worked on formed around this theme: • Precarious Workers and organising them.

• Struggles that have taken place outside the workplace in your union.

• Social Media.

• Strategic campaign organising.

• HIV/AIDS (Put a condom on).

The Summer School was an excellent opportunity to exchange information and generate new ideas with like minded young trade unionists. Many discussions were had with comrades from around the globe both during the school and with a Cerveza (beer) in hand after the day’s work. The one issue that kept coming up throughout the week was various countries’ political situations and how they are being run by capitalist radicals with no laws or legislation in place to protect workers’ rights or human rights for that matter.

We are lucky in Australia to be unionists who have a voice and a legal right to fight for what we believe in; and a Labor Federal government in power with former trade unionists that are not attacking workers or workers rights.

In NSW on the other hand we see the alternative to the Labor party with the NSW Liberals attacking public sector workers with worse industrial relations laws than Howard had in place.

So what can we do? Get Trade unionists into political positions who are not going to be there for a political career based on personal greed and who will look after Australia’s greatest asset THE WORKER. Meeting fellow transport workers was the stand out part of the course for me and I look forward to working and spending time with them in the future to create better working lives for the people we represent in our unions and countries. I would also like to thank M.U.A National office and the sections of Newcastle Port that donated funds to support my trip away.

Edward Dunne 9029588 Strength In Unity

27

LABOR CONFERENCE

ACTU CONGRESS

ALP NATIONAL CONFERENCE Our voice was heard loud and clear at the landmark ALP National Conference in December...

T NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP ACTU Congress, Sydney, 15-17 May 2012

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin told the recent ACTU Congress that we must be international in our thinking if we are to prevail.

N

ational Secretary Paddy Crumlin was in Sydney to address the ACTU Congress in May, when he covered a range of topics including the appointment of Dave Oliver as ACTU Secretary, the current Chevron campaign and internationalism. The MUA had a strong presence at Congress, and at the youth meeting that proceeded it, and the National Secretary’s speech was well received by our comrades in the Labour movement.

Comrade Crumlin hailed the ACTU for their appointment of Dave Oliver as national secretary, saying he will bring “new opportunities for the ACTU to take a leadership role in national policy debates on the economy and jobs, on insecure work, on foreign labour, on corporate power and on major social policy initiatives.

“This will give the union movement a better opportunity to set the agenda on economic and tax issues so services like education, training and NDIS can be paid for and delivered, to focus on Australian procurement and jobs, to address industry policy and

industry transformation and positively respond to climate change,” Comrade Crumlin said.

The ACTU Congress welcomed a report unlocking the potential of Australia’s workforce, which analyses the extent of the problem now affecting 40% of the workforce and sets out potential solutions. Better rights for casual and contract workers, a much larger investment in Australia’s workforce and an overhaul of its welfare system are the building blocks the report covers to undo the damage caused by the spread of insecure work.

Comrade Crumlin also briefed the delegates on the current Chevron/ Allseas campaign: “Australia’s migration zone has been altered for the purpose of excluding certain visitors to this country that come by boat to make sure that they’re not processed onshore. When the Howard government manipulated the migration zone in their cynical way, so that refugees could be processed offshore, they unwittingly created a remarkable situation.

“They are virtually walking-in a foreign workforce and working in an Australian high-

“The MUA holds a deep commitment to international organising. Seafaring is international and we need to be truly international in our thinking.”

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level, high-productivity, high-security area as foreign guest workers, because of this anomaly of the Migration Act. “Now if this is allowed to continue, the migration zone will probably end up off Fort Denison or Kangaroo Island or Rottnest Island and anyone working outside that will be a foreign guest worker.

“Not an EMA, not on a 457, not in any way controlled or regulated, these are high security areas, an Australian worker out there is required to have a security card and they are under more scrutiny that Ivan Milat.”

Finally, while seconding a resolution in a show of solidarity to the Pacific and Fiji, Comrade Crumlin stressed the need for a global trade union movement run on an international footing: “We need to revitalise the international trade union movement, we have to take this out of London, Brussels and Geneva.

“The MUA holds a deep commitment to international organising. Seafaring is international and we need to be truly international in our thinking. Currently we work through the ITF and reach out to our friends in the region, reaching out with trust and building a shared history together – a genuine international family based around mutual and collective interest, political and industrial interest.”

The MUA also actively participated in the Youth meeting that preceded the Congress. • www.mua.org.au

he MUA participated robustly at the ALP National Conference in Sydney in December.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin spoke out on the key issues of foreign labour, workers’ capital/infrastructure funding and Qantas. Mr Crumlin and SA Branch Secretary Jamie Newlyn were delegates at the conference and voted with the left on all issues.

Pivotal to the MUA’s concerns, ALP conference endorsed a change to the party’s platform to ensure that overseas workers were paid at “genuine market rates and conditions equal to those received by equivalent Australian workers”.

Mr Crumlin said changes made to the Migration Zone by the Howard Government to control the processing of refugees had led to a scenario whereby Allseas - a Chevron contractor on the $43 billion Gorgon Project - was manipulating the system. “They are bringing in foreign workers on tourist visas, putting them on ships in Dampier and sending them out to work outside the Migration Zone,” Mr Crumlin told the Conference.

“They’re not required to pay tax, or GST, or be competently trained. They’re not required to comply with the Fair Work Act, or any other Act. They are virtually walking a foreign workforce into an Australian high productivity, high security area ... because of the anomaly of the Migration Act. “Now if this is allowed to continue, the Migration Act will probably end off Fort Denison, or Kangaroo Island, or Rottnest Island and anyone working outside that will be a foreign guest worker. It’s a disgrace and need to be amended. The Migration Act needs to be extended everywhere there is Australian territory.”

Conference also passed a motion that Labor governments be obligated to use more private investment to fund infrastructure, while also retaining some public ownership.

Private investment should only be used when it represents good value for money.

Mr Crumlin said the focus needed to shift away from the use of investment banks and others who brought us the global financial crisis.

“I’m very happy to be a trade union person involved in workers’ capital,” Mr Crumlin told conference. There’s a productivity debate going on. Sometimes the MUA gets highlighted in the debate and I often respond that the real productivity issues now aren’t workers’ productivity. We’re at a point of continuous improvement - [the real issue] is capital productivity and if we can harness www.mua.org.au

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and Federal Senator Doug Cameron vote at conference.

[changes to superannuation and workers’ capital] directly linked to infrastructure building, it will enjoy the full support of all retired Australians.”

The conference also backed a motion attacking Qantas’ decision to take some jobs offshore and temporarily suspend its operations in October.

Voting on the motion moved by Transport Workers Union boss Tony Sheldon, the conference noted “with dismay Qantas management’s disastrous and unjustified decision to shut down all aviation services without notice on October 29, 2011 and its ongoing objective of cutting Australian jobs in all fields of operation”.

“Qantas management’s decision to outsource or offshore existing work, thereby lowering pay, service standards is fundamentally inconsistent with maintaining a strong Australian national carrier,” the motion read.

“This year the carrier recorded another record profit of $530 million and awarded its CEO Alan Joyce a 71 per cent pay increase despite a 71 per cent fall in its share value.”

Mr Sheldon told the conference Qantas had held workers in contempt: “This is the company that is leading employer militancy in

this country.”

Later in the conference, a motion was passed to open the way for all workplace agreements to be required to include last resort arbitration clauses, which would broaden the role of Fair Work Australia in settling disputes. This would require changes to the Fair Work Act, which is currently undergoing review.

In a separate announcement, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the establishment of a new government agency to help launch of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Ms Gillard said the NDIS would end the “cruel lottery” that had been the lot of people with disabilities who received services based on where they lived and how they came to be disabled.

Mr Crumlin reiterated earlier statements that for too long, some our most vulnerable citizens have had to endure substandard support as they navigate the maze of state and commonwealth services.

“This is a historic reform, in the same league as Medicare and compulsory superannuation,” Mr Crumlin said. “This new system will ensure a decent system of care and support for people with disabilities, allowing them to live with dignity and respect.” •

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WOMEN, INDIGENOUS & YOUTH

2012 Women, Youth and Indigenous Conference group photo

WOMEN, YOUTH AND INDIGENOUS CONFERENCE 2012 The MUA’s first-ever Conference addressing the rights and needs of women, youth and indigenous people was a rousing success.

Jacqueline Smith

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T

he MUA wrote another chapter in its proud history with the staging of its inaugural Women, Youth and Indigenous Conference in Sydney. The Conference had a fantastic turnout and was represented in force by all three groups.

The Conference was an interactive day which saw strong participation from both panel and audience members. All three groups put forward many resolutions that will be addressed and pursued over the next four years.

The women’s panel sought to tackle issues of the shortfall in female membership numbers and the eradication of harassment towards women in the workplace. The youth panel also looked to increase their union participation and involvement, including having a youth representative at all future meetings and committees. The indigenous panel

also considered a wide range of resolutions from environmental issues to land rights.

Highlight of the day was the award of a lifetime MUA membership to Lorraine Ryan. A member for over 12 years, Mrs Ryan springs from a long line of family members affiliated with the MUA, which includes her father and husband. A delegate for Sydney ferries, Mrs Ryan was nominated by a co-worker to the Sydney branch in recognition of her massive contribution to the union. Comrade Ryan was the first woman in the union to run for office against male opposition, and she has also been an ambassador for the White Ribbon Foundation campaign which requires men to pledge to stop violence against women.

Mrs Ryan was overcome with emotion at this surprise award: “The union has given us the opportunity for my husband and I to earn a decent living and help put our children through university”, said an honoured Ryan.

Usually a lifetime membership is only awarded after 20 years membership however, President Crumlin stated: “Lorraine Ryan has achieved more for this union in 12 years than most achieve in 40.”

The conference was also attended by several key figures including MUA and ITF President Paddy Crumlin and esteemed international guests such as Terri Mast from the ILWU Marine Division and Jacqueline Smith from the Norwegian Seafarers Union.

From left to right: Kyle McGinn, Daniel Falcone and Tim Dukes

From left to right: Peter Palancio, Patrick Neliman and Thomas Mayor

www.mua.org.au

www.mua.org.au

Mich-Elle Myers

Lorraine Ryan

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LEST WE FORGET

NT SPE CIAL FEATURE

WHARFIES & SEAFARERS REMEMBER DARWIN BOMBING

On Sunday 19 February the MUA hosted a service to commemorate the 23 wharfies and 48 seafarers who lost their lives at Stokes Hill Wharf 70 years ago, during the bombing of Darwin.

T

he bombing of Darwin is not only a military story, but a story of the brave acts of civilians, including wharfies and seafarers.

The service to commemorate these loses took place at Stokes Hill Wharf and featured speeches and musical performance from the families of those who died during the bombing.

The Maritime Union of Australia (NT Branch) played an important role in helping to organise this important remembrance event. At 9:58am the air raid sirens rang out, to symbolise the moment the first bombs were dropped.

Wreaths were dropped into the water, and a new memorial unveiled, dedicated to the wharfies and seafarers who died on 19 February 1942.

The event concluded with a performance by dancers from the Tiwi Islands.

“The 19th of February 1942 is a day etched in the collective memory of Darwin and also the collective memory of the Maritime Union of Australia,” MUA Deputy National Secretary, Mick Doleman said, who was present at the event.

“As a Union, we will never forget the 23 wharfies

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and 48 seafarers who died that day, just as the broader Darwin community will always remember the first attack on Australian soil.

“The MUA is deeply appreciative of the Territory Government’s efforts to ensure the memory of those seafarers and wharfies lives on through a new mural dedicated to their memory.”

The MUA’s NT Organiser, Thomas Mayor, echoed Mr Doleman’s appreciation of the NT

Government’s contribution.

“It must have been terrifying to witness the first bombs drop from the sky 70 years ago and it’s fitting that the Darwin community takes pause to reflect,” Mr Mayor said.

“Today’s anniversary is also a chance to remember the thousands of merchant seafarers and wharfies who died during World War 2.”

“At 9:58am the air raid sirens rang out, to symbolise the moment the first bombs were dropped.”

Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray, NT Branch Organiser Thomas Mayor and NT Chief Mininster the Hon Paul Henderson commemorate the sacrifice made

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PORT OF CALL

NT SPE CIAL FEATURE

WAVE HILL WALK-OFF 45TH ANNIVERSARY Thomas Mayor, NT Branch Organiser, reports: Comrades, your NT Branch sent a delegation of six to the commemoration of the 45th Anniversary of the Wave Hill Walk-Off on 26th – 28th August 2011. Our delegation consisted of four members and two retired members: former waterside workers Brian Manning and Jack Phillips were joined by myself, tug worker Stephan Richards, seafarer Karen East, and Darwin Port Corporation delegate Peter Palancio. Brian gave a speech on the occasion which we share with you below.

‘‘

The Gurindji people won back some traditional lands and established their own station.

MUA’s Brian Manning took this photo on the morning after he arrived in the Gurindji’s Camp in the dry bed of the Victoria River in August 1966.

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BRIAN MANNINGS’S SPEECH With the first load of food supplies to sustain the Strikers in their struggle which was to last for 9 years before their claim for return of their Lands was to be recognised in 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, with an iconic gesture, poured a handful of Gurindji soil into the hand of Vincent Lingiari as a symbol of return of the land.

This year, on the occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the WalkOff, the people celebrated “Gurindji Freedom Day” with the Inaugural ‘Gurindji Freedom Day Commemorative Lectures’ delivered at Daguragu by speakers with family links to Gurindji, Malgnin, Mudpurra and Kungarakan peoples; Dr Sue Stanton and Josie Crowshaw.

I was privileged to speak on this landmark occasion and drew attention to the solidarity of the Australian Trade Union Movement’s ongoing support from the outset.

Maritime Workers in Darwin maintained a continuing food supply using my 30cwt Bedford truck which has recently been Heritage-

listed as an object of historical significance, coinciding with the 45th anniversary. With MUA assistance I travelled with fellow retired Darwin wharfie, Jack Phillips, who also played a significant role supporting the Strikers after the walk-off.

Aboriginal people in remote communities are facing another era of discriminatory laws with the imposition of the Intervention 4 years ago by John Howard and continued by the Gillard Government. The introduction of the basics card as a forced money management scheme has been imposed arbitrarily on ALL Aborigines regardless of their ability or otherwise to manage their finances.

Additionally, the NT Government has decided as one of its budget savings exercises, to sacked ALL Remote Councils where the people were managing their communities and installed a ’shire’ hub system, withdrawing funding from ’outstations’. This has set back the Gurindji community development about 5 years.

The discussions during symposiums were spirited against the Governments’ actions and the people are once again calling for another ’walk-off’ to express their frustration at what amounts to social engineering and a return to the old assimilation policies of the past. There is no doubt the Gurindji has formed a close association with the Australian Union Movement and I am quite sure they will not hesitate to again call on the Unions for solidarity in their ongoing struggle to run their own lives.

Brian Manning

‘‘

Waterside Workers and Seafarers have a proud history of supporting the struggles of Indigenous Australians. On the occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the historic Wave Hill WalkOff, your union was there in solidarity…

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BACKGROUND TO THE ‘WALK-OFF’ Wave Hill Station is located approximately 600 kilometres south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. Vesteys, a British pastoral company which ran the cattle station, employed local Aboriginal people, mostly Gurindji. Working and living conditions for Aboriginal people were very poor. The wages of Aboriginal workers generally were controlled and not equal to those paid to non-Aboriginal employees.

An attempt to introduce equal wages for Aboriginal workers was made in 1965, but in March 1966 the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission decided to delay until 1968 the payment of award wages to male Aboriginal workers in the cattle industry.

In August 1966, Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji spokesman, led a walk-off of 200 Aboriginal stockmen, house servants, and their families from Wave Hill as a protest against the work and pay conditions. The strike was part of a widespread campaign begun by workers on Brunette Downs Station and supported by non-Indigenous people, including unionists and the author Frank Hardy.

The protesters camped at Wattie Creek (Daguragu) and sought the return of some of their traditional lands to develop a cattle

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station. They petitioned the GovernorGeneral in 1967, and leaders toured Australia to raise awareness about their cause. In 1972, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced that funds would be made available for the purchase of properties that were not on reserves, and Lord Vestey offered to surrender 90 square kilometres to the Gurindji people.

Daguragu was acquired by the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission and, on 16 August 1975 at Daguragu, Prime Minister Whitlam transferred leasehold title to the Gurindji, symbolically handing soil to Vincent Lingiari.

The Gurindji campaign was an important influence on the events leading to passing the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) 1976.

The Central Land Council applied on behalf of the Gurindji under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 for traditional land comprising the Daguragu pastoral lease and some adjacent un-alienated Crown land.

In 1981 the Aboriginal Land Commissioner recommended that the land claim should be granted. The claim relating to the South West Corner was granted in 1985.

National Archives of Australia

Top left: Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours soil into the hands of traditional land owner Vincent Lingiari in a hand back ceremony in the Northern Territory in 1975.

This famous shot established Mervyn Bishop’s reputation as Australia’s first Koori press photographer.

Top right: MUA Members Peter Palancio, Stephan Richardson and Karen East made the trek to the Wave Hill Walk-off Celebration.

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NO NUKES

NT SPE CIAL FEATURE

ALARM AT NUCLEAR WASTE PLAN FOR NORTHERN TERRITORY

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n Wednesday 24 August 2011, Dr Jim Green and Cat Beaton visited East Arm Wharf, Darwin, to raise the alarm on the issue of radioactive waste transport. Jim is the National Nuclear Campaigner with Friends of the Earth in Melbourne and Cat works for the Environment Centre NT in Darwin.

The Federal Government wants to use Darwin Port for the movement of long-lived intermediate-level nuclear waste that remains radioactive for many thousands of years. This waste comes from nuclear fuel rods from the Lucas Heights research reactor south of Sydney. Spent (irradiated) fuel rods have been sent to France and Scotland for reprocessing and it is the reprocessed waste that is being returned to Australia. It is just as radioactive as the spent fuel and contains a mix of uranium fission products and ‘transuranic’ radioactive elements such as plutonium.

The Federal Government wants to use Muckaty, north of Tennant Creek, for a national nuclear waste dump. The current waste stockpile amounts to 4000 cubic metres. Of that total, the nuclear reprocessing waste accounts of less than 10 per cent of the volume but more than 90 percent of the radioactivity.

As well as the risks it poses to workers and the pressure it places on the health of the harbour, there are other issues with the proposed dump. Many experts question the need for the dump when the Lucas Heights reactor site is

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The $12 million compensation offered to the Muckaty community is a package to fund roads, housing and education scholarships – things other Australians expect and receive as standard citizenship entitlements. much better-placed to be managing its own waste rather than a remote site in the NT. There is also much debate about the choice of the Muckaty site given that it was not considered suitable when scientific studies were conducted in the 1990s. Moreover there is strong opposition from the local community.

The NT Parliament has passed legislation banning the imposition of a nuclear dump but the Federal Government plans to override that legislation - and all other NT legislation - in order to impose a dump on Territorians.

There is a strong community campaign against the proposed Muckaty dump as well as a court case in the Federal Court

challenging the nomination of the site. (see pics).

Thanks for the opportunity to visit Port Botany while the Muckaty ladies were in town. It was a definite highlight of the trip to be able to meet directly with the workers who will be on the front line of loading/unloading waste destined for an NT dump.

Since 2005 Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory have been resisting federal government moves to impose a radioactive waste dump on their traditional lands.

Three potential Department of Defence sites were named by the Howard government without any consultation with affected communities or the NT Government. In 2007, despite opposition from many Traditional Owners, a fourth site in the Muckaty Land Trust (near Tennant Creek) was proposed by the Northern Land Council.

Legislation tabled by Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson repeals the current Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act and the three nominated defence sites but specifically target Muckaty as the only site to be further assessed. The National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010 passed the House of Representatives and as we go to press in March 2012 is being debated in the Senate, despite ongoing NT government and community opposition.

The worst of the radioactive waste planned for the dump is spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor in Sydney, due back from overseas processing from mid 2015.

It is expected this would come through the Port of Darwin for road or rail transport to the proposed Muckaty site.

There is little benefit for Aboriginal communities in hosting a radioactive waste facility given the high environmental risk and limited job opportunities, with the government promising only 30 jobs in short term construction and 6 security guard positions.

The $12 million compensation offered to the Muckaty community is a package to fund roads, housing and education scholarships, things other Australians expect and receive as standard citizenship entitlements.

A series of truck and rail accidents over the last few years has increased concern www.mua.org.au

The worst of the radioactive waste is expected to come through the Port of Darwin for road or rail transport to the proposed Muckaty site. about the risks of transporting radioactive materials thousands of kilometres to a remote area. Incidents include a Greyhound bus overturning and a major cyanide spill, which closed the Stuart Highway for a week just outside Muckaty Station.

The secretive site nomination process for Muckaty was out of step with an international agreement on the need for genuine community consultation and consent in decisions about nuclear facilities.

The UK Committee on Radioactive Waste Management report (June 2007) says “There is growing recognition that it is ethically unacceptable to impose a radioactive waste facility on an unwilling community.”

The Gillard government’s continuation of Howard’s dump plan conflicts with ALP election commitments to adopt an ‘open, transparent and accountable’ approach to radioactive waste management.

Traditional Owners from Muckaty have travelled widely to raise awareness of their opposition and trade union support has been growing nationally.

In April 2009 Muckaty Traditional Owners spoke in Wollongong just after a shipment of spent nuclear fuel rods had left Port Kembla,despite opposition from the local MUA branch. MUA Southern NSW Branch Secretary Garry Keane noted. “It’s really a frightening situation that people aren’t going to have a say about what’s stuck there, buried in their own lands. We are not prepared to be the people who transport this back up to bury it in an area where the communities have no say, the Traditional Owners have no say whatsoever about this going in the ground. We need to say this is just not acceptable.” www.mua.org.au

ABOVE & TOP: Muckaty women took their campaign to Sydney, where they addressed MUA members at Patrick Port Botany. BELOW: MUA Assistant Secretary Ian Bray visited Muckaty to discuss the issue with local landowners.

communities at its February 2010 Full Council meeting, adopting a position of noncooperation with the policy and calling for solidarity from national trade unions and union councils.

The active support of trade unionists across the country is essential for holding the government to its commitments and avoiding a major environment and human rights abuse. We must demand repeal of the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act and oppose any proposed legislation that would force a radioactive waste dump on unwilling communities.

Muckaty Traditional Owner Dianne Stokes has said clearly: “All along we have said we don’t want this dump on our land but we have been ignored. Martin Ferguson has avoided us and ignored our letters but he knows very well how we feel. He has been arrogant and secretive and he thinks he has gotten away with his plan but in fact he has a big fight on his hands. We won’t be letting that dump go ahead on our land because our duty is to look after that special place for future generations and that’s exactly what we plan to do.”

MORE INFORMATION: n Beyond Nuclear Initiative

In June the ACTU National Congress unanimously agreed to support Traditional Owners and communities opposing the waste dump. The motion, put forward by Unions NT Secretary Matthew Gardiner, also pledged support for trade unionists refusing to cooperate with the dump plan.

Unions NT expressed support to the targeted

www.beyondnuclearinitiative.com n Nuclear Freeways www.

nuclearfreeways.org.au n Friends of the Earth www.foe.org.au/

anti-nuclear/issues/oz/nontdump n Federal Government

www.radioactivewaste.gov.au

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SAFETY

LONGVIEW

THE DAY DAD DIDN’T COME HOME

MUA WELCOMES LONGVIEW SETTLEMENT HOW IT HAPPENED...

Former NT Branch Secretary Brian Manning was on duty the day Kurt Ertl died. He recounts the incident and its impact on workplace safety...

Annette Ertl-New remembers her father Kurt Ertl, victim of a tragic workplace accident 40 years ago that changed a family and our workplace laws forever...

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his is a story of an ordinary man with ordinary hopes, dreams and ambitions, who had a ordinary family.

This ordinary man went to work one day on an ordinary August day in 1971 and did not come home again. A workplace accident took his life at 36 years of age.

Doesn’t sound like much of a story, but this ordinary man left a hole in the lives of his family that 40 years later is still there.

This man had a name and it was Kurt Ertl (photo above). He had a beautiful wife and three children aged 10, 8 and 2 years old.

The change in that family was so great that his wife was never able to reclaim her life and has lived in deep grief for 40 years. His beautiful parents in another country who had not seen him since he was 24 years old got the message of their 36 year old son’s death two months before he was to visit them with his young family.

His death not only affected his family but also affected work colleagues who carried around these terrible memories of what they saw that day. The man that was meant to be driving the crane never drove a crane again.

The man that cared for Dad as he lay dying held that memory and was unable to let it go until he spoke to me a couple of months ago.

Witnessing such horrible things can cause trauma and change lives forever.

My Dad’s death changed laws relating to the wearing of hard hats but we would have been happier if he could have walked us down the aisle on our wedding days or held his grandchildren when they were born. There is no happy ending to this story and I can only remind you all that you have parents, partners,

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children, siblings and friends who would grieve if you did not come home. The moral of this story is no matter how safe you think you are at work, an accident is just waiting to happen. A moment of distraction is all it takes for tragedy to occur.

I contacted Thomas Mayor to see if I could get some assistance from your union in getting my mother back to Darwin for the 40th anniversary of his death. Thomas was kind enough to donate $1000 on the unions behalf. This will assist in part in getting her to Darwin in the future. The timing is not right for her to be there for the 40th anniversary however. She cannot fly and it will cost around $4000 to get her to Darwin by train. I thank Thomas and your union for this assistance and hope to have her there soon. Again thank you for your generosity and stay safe.

Regards, Annette Ertl-New n Northern Territory Branch Organiser, Thomas Mayor met widower Ronda Ertl when she visited Darwin recently. Forty years on her heart still aches, but she sends her thanks to the members of the MUA and expressed her wish for us all to be safe at work

The moral of this story is no matter how safe you think you are at work, an accident is just waiting to happen.

“I knew Kurt very well. He was a friend, we shared an interest in jazz music. He was a foreman in Darwin and he worked loading rig tenders.

Back then companies retained the right to load provisions. We would load cargo.

“It happened on the old boom wharf which is no longer there. This day Kurt was foreman loading the rig tender Cook Shore, operated by Sedco. They were using a 36-tonne crane to load pipes used in oil drilling off a semi-trailer. Our guys had gone to smoko and the crane was left idle holding these long cables. Kurt, being helpful as usual, had gone to help the company’s providore supplier. Next we heard the load had come down on him.

He died later in hospital. I went to the morgue to identify his body to save his widow the grief. She’d already gone to the hospital and was traumatised.

“We hadn’t had a fatality like that and Kurt’s death got a lot of publicity.

I was an amateur filmmaker and filmed the whole accident scene on 16mm and showed the film at the Coronial Inquiry. I also gave evidence. The whole incident and inquiry led to us demand safety boots and helmets as standard personal issue. And I must say we had no objection from the employers.

They saw the risk and came good.

We had more difficulty getting the blokes to wear them. They’d come to work wearing thongs!

“But Kurt’s tragic death did spur the Branch to lead the charge arguing for the workplace safety laws that would eventually be introduced in the ‘80s.”

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he MUA National Secretary and ITF President Paddy Crumlin has welcomed news of a settlement of the long-running dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and EGT at Longview in the US state of Washington.

Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire announced in late January that the ILWU and EGT had reached a “tentative settlement” on pending legal issues surrounding labour disputes at EGT’s grain export facility in Longview.

ILWU President Mr Bob McEllrath said in a statement: “This is a win for the ILWU, EGT, and the Longview community. I want to thank Governor Gregoire for her leadership in working with both parties to find common ground. The ILWU has eight decades of grain export experience in the Northwest, and we look forward to the opportunity to develop a

“This dispute proves again the importance of dockworkers solidarity and we’ll continue to fight for fair working conditions for all workers.”

Paddy Crumlin positive working relationship with EGT.” Mr Crumlin, who is also chair of the ITF Dockers section, said Mr McEllrath “is to be congratulated for standing up for the best interests of his workers in the face of enormous pressure from a co-ordinated campaign against organised labour.”

Governor Gregoire said: “I asked EGT and the ILWU to come together in a good faith effort to overcome their differences.

Both parties should be commended for their willingness to work together and compromise. This framework reflects the considerable effort to put the interests of the Longview community and the entire Columbia River basin first. I am confident an agreement can be reached that will satisfy both parties and allow the new grain terminal to become fully operational.”

EGT CEO Larry Clarke said: “We are pleased to announce that, after a series of discussions convened by Governor Gregoire, the ILWU and EGT have reached a tentative settlement to resolve the pending legal matters between the parties and the Port of Longview. While the parties are still working to finalize certain conditions over the next

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several days, we are optimistic we can resolve the dispute and get on with the business of operating the facility. From the beginning, we had two core goals - to operate this 21st Century facility safely and efficiently and to ensure the entire Longview Community shares in the economic benefits this facility will provide. We are optimistic this process will help us reach both of these objectives.”

Mr Crumlin said that, prior to the announcement, MUA members had been placed on standby to immediately fly to Longview to provide support where necessary.”

This dispute proves again the importance of dockworkers’ solidarity and we’ll continue to fight for fair working conditions for all workers.”

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MIDDLE EAST

UPDATES

INSET: Queensland Branch Secretary, Mick Carr (second from right) attended the ICEM North American Region meeting in solidarity. Afterwards, Mick led an MUA delegation on the picket line with ILWU members and later spoke at the march and rally (below).

VICTORY IN EGYPT Egypt’s Independent Union of Sokhna Port Workers has secured a famous victory in the Port of Sokhna, reports Warren Smith.

ALMA DISPUTE GETS UGLY Comrades in Quebec continue to fight Rio Tinto in a dispute that is getting uglier by the day.

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United Steel Workers reps Guy Farrell (right) and Marc Matais, address the MUA’s Quadrennial Conference in March.

“This is a fight we are having for future generations” USW official Guy Farrell

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io Tinto Alcan locked unionised workers out at the 438,000 tonne smelter, in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, on Jan. 1, after talks on a new contract failed. The old contract expired on Dec. 31 and the two sides had been talking since October.

Rio has been operating the plant with non-unionised workers at about one-third of capacity since early January.

The Anglo-Australian miner said on Friday it will restart two suspended lines of production at its Shawinigan smelter in Quebec, bringing that plant back to full production, although Tucker said the plant will only be back at full capacity in May. Rio closed the lines, two of four at the 100,000 tonne plant, in late December after a major power problem.

The company has earmarked the smelter, which was commissioned in the early 1940s, for permanent shutdown in December 2014 The United Steelworkers union, which represents the more than 750 unionized

workers at Alma, has sharply criticized Rio for the lockout and accused the mining giant of beginning “a major assault on workers and communities”.

One sticking point is Rio’s plan to increase the proportion of contract employees at the plant to 27 percent from 10.7 percent. The union says the contract workers would be paid half the wages currently earned by unionized employees.

“Accepting this demand would cause a dramatic downward economic spiral not only for the workers but for members of the community, which would see income, local business sales and tax revenues drop precipitously,” said Daniel Roy, Quebec director of United Steelworkers.

The union is organizing a global campaign against Rio Tinto’s and has letters of support from unions in Canada and beyond, said USW official Guy Farrell.

“This is a fight we are having for future generations. This is not a fight for those that are working at Alma right now,” Farrell said. www.mua.org.au

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omrades in Egypt celebrated in March as the dispute in the Port of Sokhna was brought to a victorious end, after the Independent Union of Sokhna Port Workers won concessions on workforce involvement and profit sharing. Agreement was reached following talks involving the union, DPW (Dubai Ports World), the governor of Suez city, the military representative, and the head of the Red Sea Ports Authority.

ITF Arab World representative Bilal Malkawi said: “The strike lasted for 10 days, with the whole terminal completely out of operation. We are glad that this tough strike

has come to an end with a real victory and a signed agreement. The dockers of Sokhna have won assurances on pay and bonuses that were their core demands. They and their union’s actions have proved decisive.”

“We are glad to see DPW (Dubai Ports World) respond positively to the call to support the negotiations that have now delivered a result that we believe will be good for everyone involved, worker and employer alike.”

He continued: “The support received from ITF affiliated unions and its effect on morale was highly praised by the workers.”

MUA Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith initiated a national campaign in solidarity through workplaces. DPW Egypt members have subsequently expressed their thanks for the support of MUA members.

Frank Leys, ITF dockers’ section secretary, said: “This has been a great effort by the union members in Sokhna and their friends worldwide. It is also the kind of result the ITF’s global network terminals campaign was set up to achieve. We are and will continue to be in favour of genuine and constructive dialogue with global employers.”

The 1,200 port workers in Sokhna, on the southern approach to the Suez Canal, had called on DPW to implement an agreement dating from last October to settle pay compensation claims, including an extraordinary efforts allowance.

ROTTERDAM ENDS IN AGREEMENT 1 Mar 2012: An ongoing dispute between dockers and management at the global network terminal (GNT)-operated Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands has ended in a new collective bargaining agreement which runs until 2014 and guarantees employment until 2016. The ITF- and

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ETF- affiliated union FNV Bondgenoten held strikes in February and March in protest at the brutal stance of Rotterdam port operator APM Terminals (APMT) during negotiations over the terms and conditions of a new agreement. The dispute sparked a wave of international

solidarity. FNV Bondgenoten’s Niek Stam said: “We want to thank all the unions who sent us messages of solidarity especially those that they wanted to do more than words. This was a great support and certainly backed us up at the negotiation table.”

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VALE

PAUL SUMMERS (Union No. 3926) The MUA honours Paul Summers and recognises his contribution to the SUA and MUA and the trade union movement. His legacy will live on in the strength of our union.

Legendary Western Australian seamen’s activist, Paul Summers, has died, aged 84. Reacting to the news, MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin paid tribute to the Life Member of the MUA, the SUA and the ALP: “Paul was a remarkable character, a working class man who dedicated his life to his beliefs and the ideals of a fairer and more just, peaceful and genuinely functional workplace, community, nation and world.”

Paul Richard Summers was born in Newcastle in 1928 to Tom Summers, an English seafarer who jumped ship, and Mary Campbell, a Newcastle nurse. Paul’s brothers Eddie, Chris, Bernie and Mike (dec.) were all seafarers. His sister Patsy is a retired nurse and community matriarch.

He shipped out of Newcastle in 1943, when he was 15 years old, and joined The Seaman’s Union of Australasia.

He married Trudy in 1951 and moved to Fremantle soon after but shipped out of all East coast ports until later in the 1950s when he settled in Fremantle. Paul and Trudy had four children: Dave, Dean, Trudi and Glenn, with all three sons going to sea. Sadly, he lost his wife Trudy to cancer in 1989, but several years later found new love with Betty Liebeck and they stayed together until the day he died.

In 1978, Paul was asked by WA Branch Secretary Terry Rawlings to move to Port Hedland to counter the attack on workers in the North West and ensure the SUA held the tugs. He stayed 14 years until retirement.

He became the Port Hedland Trade Union Council secretary and ALP Secretary soon after arriving and was appointed to the Hedland Port Authority 1985-92.

Returning to Perth, Paul was invited to become the caretaker for the SUA point Peron camps from 1996-2006.

National Secretary Crumlin added: “The keel of his strong beliefs and lifelong commitment to unionism and progressive worker activism was laid in Newcastle as a deck-boy during the Second World War. “There was no more dangerous place to sail out of then those steelmaking ports and nearly one in every eight Australian merchant seafarers died in that war against fascism.

“He was known as a hard and fair seaman, a leading delegate of the union and in fact a rank and file leader of the union who was central to not only our union organisation in later years but to the trade union movement, particularly in Western Australia.

“Paul lived a long life and a good one. He was graced with great good humour and

“He will be missed in the equal measure with which he was loved and respected.”

LESLIE DESMOND HARVEY Chief Cook Les Harvey was born in the Western NSW township of Dunedoo on 6 January 1927, and passed away at the Link Retirement Home at Wollongong on 6 October 2011.

Les was a chef in the Katoomba area for many years before deciding to embark on a sea-going career like his younger brother William, commonly known as ‘Billie Bunter’.

Les moved to the Port Kembla in 1963 and except for a stint on the , he sailed mainly

“Les was a good unionist, always volunteering to assist the union to ensure our success.”

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on BHP vessels. He remained on the Iron Clipper for 11 years.

Les was always popular with the crew due to the diligence and expertise he displayed in cooking presentation. Les was a good unionist, always volunteering to assist the union in any functions held at Port Kembla to ensure our success.

Les was a great shipmate and chief cook.

Bill Heath

BRUCE MACKERRAS (Union No. 172) Bruce Mackerras, aged 67, passed away after a short battle with cancer in September. Bruce leaves behind sister Bev and brother Neil. Bruce went to sea as a Deck Boy at 15 aboard MV Wanganella. He was a much-respected shipmate, a staunch trade unionist and a loyal MUA member.

Bruce had the best one-liners and continued

wisdom, a strong belief in family and union and a record of extraordinary and admirable political and industrial achievements.

“He will be missed in the equal measure with which he was loved and respected.

“He was a great inspiration to all of us that were fortunate enough to have worked with him, and who knew him as a friend and comrade.”

Paul was laid to rest after a funeral at the East Chapel, Fremantle Cemetery, 16th February 2012.

We honour Paul Summers and his contribution to the union movement and the SUA and MUA. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him and his legacy will live on in the strength of our union.

A LIFE IN UNION Paul’s life achievements included: n Union Activist 1943-2012 n Life Member of the SUA n Life Member of the MUA n Life Member ALP n Director Port Hedland Port Authority 1989-1994 n Port Hedland MUA /SUA Port Delegate (12 years) PAUL’S MEDALS: n Australian Defence Medal 1939-1945 n Australian Campaign Medal 1939-1945 n Pacific Star n Australian Service Medal 1939-45 n Centenary medal 2001 n Merchant Navy Medal - 15 years with

2 Seafarer clasps - 30 years n Seafarer’s Medal

telling jokes till the day he died.

Dick White

CAROL ANN BRESLIN It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of a long-serving and wellrespected employee of the union. Carol passed away in early February after a long illness and a service was held on Friday 10 February at St Bede’s Church in Pyrmont.

Many present and former members of the Marine Stewards, Seaman’s Union and WWF including rank and file and retired officials gathered to pay their respects.

Carol started in the office of the Federated Marine Stewards and Pantrymans Association in 1983 and was a highly regard employee who became a close friend of many of the seafarers in the Sydney branch.

She joined the FMSPA at time of a change of leadership and some disarray and it was

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Alan Turkinghton

Al Schluter

ALAN TURKINGTON, AL SCHLUTER AND MIKE DREW (Union No. 3954) Alan Turkington was the cook on the Pacific Protector, a rig tender where I was serving. What a top bloke. He was, he lived down Mudgeeraba back of the Gold Coast, I was always trying to get him to come up to Redcliffe north of Brisbane to visit me but he and his wife never made it, but he was always “gunna”. Yes he was a great person and knew his job. He use to catch me sneaking in the back door from time to time off the deck to get an ice cream from the freezer.

He would say to me, “Kirkwood! You’ll get fat eating those things.” Yes, well, I wish he was here now we could both get fat together. Al it seems had left the Pacific Protector and was on another job in the West. He had been on compo for a good while and was just about to return to the job and went to some people’s assistance at a traffic accident and was hit by another vehicle. His life support was turned off some days later. It was just by chance that I walked into our TV room and there was the Turk’s photograph on the TV. I said to my wife; ”What is the Turks photograph doing on TV?” She said he was the man who went to help the people in that car accident down the coast the other day. Well he must have

wanted to let me know: A few seconds before or after I would have missed it. I got in touch with the newspaper and they told me the funeral home to contact and I was there Mike Drew the next morning.

One night in Melbourne, I was returning to the Pacific Protector, and stopped by the dredge, Queen of the Netherlands. At the bar pulling a beer was Al Schluter (Union No. 1356), a chap I met some years ago. Never sailed with him, but had heard all about him.

Al was the ‘bosun there. Next time I saw him he was helping out at the “Old Timers” Christmas Party at the TLC Building in Peel street Brisbane. I asked what he was up to and he said he was finished, and wouldn’t be here next year as he had cancer. He passed away some months later.

One chap who usually helps the “Old Timers” was Mike Drew (Union No. 9004116). I didn’t know a lot about him, but Mike was a champion chap to sail with. A Kiwi, he may have originally been a Pom and jumped ship in New Zealand, not sure.

He was always coming up with ideas, a real positive person, and had a great sense a humour. Mike it seems was away on a rig shift when the last year’s Old Timers was on, hence Al Schluter had stepped up for him, that is how I met Al for the last time. Next I heard Mike had come home with some chest infection, went to his doctor, and was sent for an X Ray and was informed he had lung cancer, throat cancer and it had gone to his brain as well.

Told he had a one in three chance of pulling

“Les was a good unionist, always volunteering to assist the union to ensure our success.” largely through her efforts that the office was kept running.

On amalgamation of the FMSPA Carol joined the SUA team and continued her fine work assisting officials and members.

Again, she saw another amalgamation in 1993 between the SUA and WWF, and again Carol fitted in like a hand in a glove, working with the branch until for family reasons she returned to her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, with her sister Jackie.

On a lighter note, Carol was the life of the party and regularly, particularly, later at night, would entertain her colleagues with her rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee”,

www.mua.org.au

generally while dancing on the table of the restaurant. She was a person who loved life and was loved by many. Rest in peace, Carol.

Amanda Rose

ROY LEONARD BRYANT (Union No. 6708) I first met Roy (The Prince) Bryant onboard the MV Mary Holyman where he had been a well-liked member of the SUA. It was during that time that I got to know Roy to be a good, honest union member who was willing to help at a moment’s notice.

Roy had been in the army in his younger years and served in the Malay conflict. He

through. Said he hoped he was “the one”. He asked the doctor if he could return to work if he pulled through. The doctor said he could see no reason why not, and asked where he worked. He said at the asbestos factory down the road -- he was never far from something to bring a smile to someone’s face, one of those chaps that when you heard he was onboard all would be OK with the work side of things, the morals and of course having a beer and a laugh.

Mike was a top bloke to have around. He was always there where the action was, always had positive ideas. If the shit hit the fan and he was around you knew you had half a chance. When the work was done and we were relaxing out on the deck heading up the Queensland coast from Gladstone to Townsville, or the other way, we just never stopped laughing. Mike was a dry type of bloke when it came to a joke, and knew plenty. He did what a lot of us wanted to do, and that was take the MV Cementco to the Breakers at Chittagong in Bangladesh. Yes, he was there for that. There would have been plenty of hands on the wheel if we all could have been there.

Following Mike’s death, they asked me if I would run the bar at the Old Timers, to which I said you have to be joking, Al’s gone, Mike’s gone, and you want me to jump into that position? Anyway I did it, just hope I’m around to do it again this year. There must be some special life boat filling up somewhere, got a lot of champion seafarers in it. Just don’t know where it’s going to be heading? There are stacks of great seafarers out there, these are just a few of the ones not with us now.

Bob Kirkwood (Union No. 3954)

had also sailed on UK ships until he came to Australia and set up home in Adelaide.

It was then that he sailed on the Aussie coast, joining a number of ships, the last one being the SEDCO 708 where the members gave Roy a retirement of a MUA clock mounted in a chunk of Australian redwood.

Something he was very proud of. This was in 1994.

In later years he remarried Jan and lived at Colonel Light Gardens. He was a member of the local RSL and will be missed at the bar.

Roy’s ashes were scattered from the tug Walan, on Australia Day 2012 in the Spencer Gulf in transit to Port Giles. (Position 35o 013’S -- 137o 460’E) The poem Fiddlers Green was read with all crew in attendance.

Condolences to Roy’s family, especially his wife Jan, from MUA Tug Crews.

Tony Nealen (Union No. 6000241)

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SHIPS OF SHAME

LETTERS FRANK BURLING 1943-2011

in their electoral defeat. However I would suggest that Queensland Health Payroll debacle put the final and largest nail into the Bligh Government’s electoral coffin.

Queensland Health is the largest single employer in the state with over 65000 employees. Almost everyone in Queensland knew someone affected by the payroll disaster, which seemingly went on for months.

If an employer wants to destroy morale in the workplace with lightning speed all you have to do is pay workers late, don’t pay them at all, or pay them incorrectly and morale will collapse instantly. So it was with Qld Health and the Government of the day.

The QLD ALP has a mountain to climb before they will be ready for government. If they are up to the task is questionable and open for great debate.

Bob Carnegie.

EXTRA CASH FOR WORKING AUSTRALIANS

ALP SLAUGHTERED IN QUEENSLAND ELECTORAL DISASTER The Australian Labor Party suffered its greatest ever defeat in its 120 year history in the March 24 Queensland State Elections.

In fact it is one of the greatest electoral routs of any social democratic party anywhere in the world!

To put the defeat in an historical perspective, Queensland Labor, when it was ousted from power in 1957 following the split and spent 32 years in opposition, it mustered around 29 percent of the primary vote. In this election in 2012 Labor mustered just 27 percent of the primary vote and has just seven members of parliament, remembering Queensland unlike other Australian State Parliaments has no upper house. The die has been effectively cast for a long period of conservative rule.

The great question of course is: “What was the cause of the ALP’s dramatic fall from power “? Bearing in mind the usual factors for a dramatic fall were simply not there. Unemployment historically was quite

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low being in the mid five percent range and interest rates also at quite low levels.

Certainly there was nothing like 11 percent unemployment, 20 percent interest rates and memories of a recession we had to have, when the Australian Electorate ousted the Keating Labour Government in 1996.

Just as in 1996 it was not so much a vote of support for Howard. In Queensland it was a vote to get rid of Labour not so much for the election of “Can Do” Campbell and his team of conservatives.

With Queensland in 2012, I think the Electorate voted out Labor by such a huge margin because its political spin had finally spun out of control. The Bligh Government had lied and omitted facts from the people of Queensland too many times and the people had a gutful and voted accordingly.

Let us quickly examine just one area of absolute ineptitude and lies handled by the Bligh Government. Much has been written about the Bligh Governments treacherous deal to sell off some of the few remaining jewels left in the crown of the state. There is no doubt this played an important part

Dear MUA Members, The Australian economy is strong, but not everyone is feeling the benefits of the boom.

To help you make ends meet and share the benefits of the mining boom, Labor is delivering cash payments to Australians.

In recent and coming weeks you will have seen: • More of your pay in your bank account if you earn under $80,000 because we’re tripling the tax-free threshold to $18,200 (in fact, nearly a million Australians won’t have to pay any tax at all); • Over $400 for primary school kids and up to $800 for high school kids; • Up to $110 extra for each child if you receive a Family Tax Benefit.

At the same time, a family with a $300,000 mortgage is now saving around $4,000 a year on their mortgage compared to when the Liberals were last in Government.

We’re doing all of this because Labor believes in supporting working Australians.

And we’ll continue to work with the Maritime Union of Australia to support working Australians.

This extra cash is going to help Australians make ends meet and it’s important more people know about it so please pass this message on to anyone else who may be interested.

Julia Gillard Prime Minister of Australia PS: More information about the cash payments is available at www.alp.org.au/agenda/householdassistance/support-for-working-people/.

Or visit http://www.alp.org.au/agenda/householdassistance/ www.mua.org.au

SHIP OF SHAME CREW’S DISTRESS CALL FORCES ORICA TO LIFT STANDARDS

ABOVE: Dangerous cargo and miserable FOC conditions led our Filipino comrade to seek help from his MUA brothers.

An FOC crew member’s cry for help to MUA Newcastle has forced Orica and its shipping partners to adopt ITF standards in Australian waters.

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n late April, MUA stevedores of the Newcastle Branch were approached by the crew of the FOC ship MCP Kopenhagen asking for assistance due to terrible living conditions, with some crew having been on board over 15 months.

The Greek-owned ship was chartered

by Orica and not only had there been poor conditions for the crew but the ship was carrying a dangerous substance, ammonium nitrate.

MUA Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith said: “The people of Newcastle have been placed at risk by a classic example of Flag of Convenience shipping, where the shipper has no idea of what ships they are chartering, and the ships are often of dubious quality.

“The owners, managers and agents, spread across different continents, deny responsibility and blame each other. Unless these ships of shame are removed from our coast there will continue to be huge problems around safety, the environment and human rights.

“There is a need for shipping activities to be undertaken under the scrutiny of Australian regulation that provides a safer

and more environmentally-friendly set of circumstances for all in the community.

“We are keen to see Australian vessels in operation that ensure high safety and environmental standards as well as jobs for the people of Newcastle.”

MUA Newcastle Branch Secretary Glen Williams led an ITF inspection, and found that there was no ITF agreement in place. ITF Assistant Coordinator Matt Purcell pursued the matter through a web of agents and managers until an ITF agreement was signed.

The MCP Kopenhagen incident received considerable media coverage, and as a result the MUA was able to arrange two follow up meetings to address both the conditions on the MCP Kopenhagen and the potential for Orica to use Australian-licensed ships for its cargos.

Earlier mapping had identified that Orica also chartered the Wincanton to carry liquid ammonia, and that this ship primarily operated in Australia.

The second meeting included the global CEO of Orica Mining Services. They were interested in the details of shipping reform and agreed to have further meetings with Australian ship owners about using Australian General

“When the ITF went on board the conditions were amongst the worst ever seen. It’s great to see that the Greek shipowners have come to their senses by signing an ITF agreement for this crew.” www.mua.org.au

License ships through their tendering process.

They also committed to ensuring that all the vessels they use internationally will have ITF agreements; to cooperate with the ITF in vessel inspections; and to ensuring that they pay SIA rates to their crew in Australia.

The ITF’s Purcell subsequently secured a further ITF agreement on an FOC carrying ammonium nitrate, the Clipper Amber.

Orica is now well aware that the MUA and the ITF are scrutinising their activities. Standards of the ships used by both companies and in their industries have improved, and will be monitored by ITF inspectors. Both companies are also now engaged in a dialogue with the MUA about using Australian-licensed ships, the outcome of which we will have to monitor once the legislation comes into place.

The MCP Kopenhagen has since returned to Newcastle port, secure in the knowledge that the Greek shipowners have signed an International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) agreement.

This agreement meant that the crew of 17 Filipinos saw their pay rise to $US1600 ($1563) a month from $US1000 and their ongoing wellbeing on board protected against the abuse of negligent shipowners.

MUA’s Glen Williams said it was a big win for the seafarers on board.

“When the ITF went on board the conditions were amongst the worst ever seen. It’s great to see that the Greek shipowners have come to their senses by signing an ITF agreement for this crew,” Mr Williams said.

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FUND RAISER

GOOD CAUSE “What we have seen today represents the selfless nature of maritime workers, and the best spirit they embody to help others.

Not because we have to, but because we can.”

CLOSE SHAVE FOR CHARITY

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veryday 36 Australian women are diagnosed with breast cancer with more than 13,600 new cases are diagnosed each year. With approximately 28% of all cancer cases diagnosed in Australian women being breast cancer, Tasmanian Branch member Janet Harris, (Union No.9004196) decided to sacrifice her lovely locks in the name of medical research.

Janet is Workplace Support for the MUA and TT Line and is a tireless worker for women’s workplace rights in Tassie, raised over $3000 from MUA members for the Australian Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Janet is also an active member of the Tasmanian Wing Chun Academy and her close shave contributed the lion’s share of the Academy’s annual fund-raising drive, which raised $4788 all up for the to the ABCRF. Fantastic effort, Janet, you’re a legend!

Paul Garrett Sydney Assistant Branch Secretary

MUA ROLLING FUND DONATED TO CHILDRENS HOSPITAL MUA members this month presented the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation with a cheque for $27,000 that will be used to buy surgical equipment specifically for children.

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vitzer Linesmen (formerly Stannard Brothers) shut down in March and as a result 27 MUA members were made redundant.

Fourteen members have since gained employment with a new company and several others have been taken on as casual workers.

In closing down, the members had a significant amount in their rolling fund to deal with. Following some discussion, the linesman agreed that they were to donate

$27, 000 ($1,000 per member) to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The cheque was presented to the Foundation

by MUA delegates Ian Cameron, Dave Cook and Sydney Assistant Branch Secretary Paul Garrett. Partnerships Manager for the Children’s Foundation Louise Claridge said “The Paediatric surgeons at Sydney Children’s Hospital are highly trained to treat the complex, delicate and rare surgical conditions of childhood. “

“The Surgery Department urgently needs additional instruments specifically for delicate surgery for cleft lip and palate surgery and hypospadias surgery.

“Alternate adult general plastic instrument sets are too large and coarse for surgery on infants and as a result we need community support to help us purchase the important surgical instrument sets,” said Miss Claridge.

“We thank the MUA members for this wonderful and selfless donation which will make a considerable difference for the children that require surgery.” Added Miss Claridge.

Paul Garrett said, “What we have seen today represents the selfless nature of maritime workers, and the best spirit that embodies maritime workers to help others. Not because we have to, but because we can.

“The donation continues a long standing tradition of political activism and social awareness that started with the linesman working at Stannard Brothers many decades ago,” said Mr Garrett.

W.G. McNally Jones Staff LAWYERS

Call 1300 287 609, email mua@rthealthfund.com. au or visit www.rthealthfund.com.au/mua.html Or, complete and return the slip below and your own MUA Health Plan consultant will give you a call.

Tattersalls Building, Level 10, 179 Elizabeth Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Phone: (02) 9233 4744 Fax: 02 9223 7859

Yes please give me a call to tell me more about the new MUA member health plan:

Offices also in Perth & Fremantle PERTH: (08) 6142 6200 FREMANTLE: (08) 6420 9580 Email: law@mcnally.com.au

My name is _______________________________ You can catch me on this phone number __________________________________________

We have accredited specialists in Employment and Industrial Law & Personal Injury. We can also provide legal advice andrepresentation to all MUA members on:

Or email me at this address _________________ __________________________________________ Simply fax this slip to 1300 887 123 and your MUA consultant will be in touch with you.

Litigation I Free Wills I Family Law including De Facto Relationships I Police Matters I Discrimination I Conveyancing Deceased Estates I Superannuation & Disability Claims I General Legal Advice As members of the MUA you are entitled to free Wills and the first consultation is free of charge upon presentation of a referral letter from the MUA.

Proud to be the lawyers for the MUA for over 40 years 46

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OCCUPY

MUA MARCHES WITH THE 99 PER CENT

More than 1000 people gathered in Sydney and Melbourne CDBs to express solidarity with the US Occupy Wall Street movement and protest topics ranging from corporate greed to environmental degradation.

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he rallies, held in February in Martin Place in Sydney and the City Square in Melbourne, officially commenced at 2.30pm in tandem with similar occupations across the world.

Demonstrators in Sydney chanted slogans and displayed anti-corporate placards in front of the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of Australia and other large Australian banks and financial institutions.

MUA Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith was one of the speakers who addressed the gathering in Sydney.

“We are here because we are the 99 per cent. We are the majority and we want to fight the brutality of the capitalist system that exploits all the working class.”

Several other trade unionists also spoke, including a member of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), a Construction

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Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) member and Louise Arnfield, President of the NSW Branch of the Financial Services Union.

Many protestors said they were in the square because they felt there was no political party that represented them or could

spawned from the Occupy Together group which drew inspiration from the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt in February that resulted in the downfall of the dictatorial Mubarak regime.

Demonstrators in New York occupied Zucotti Park near the city’s financial district

“Occupy Wall Street is the most inspirational movement of working people in the history of humanity.” Paul McAleer, MUA Sydney Branch Secretary achieve the changes they were calling for.

The protest organisers hoped many who attended the rally would spend the night in the square. Just after 5pm there were around seven two- and three-man tents set up as well as two much larger ones.

The Occupy Sydney movement has

to protest the bailout of Wall Street and excessive corporate salaries and bonuses.

Over the course of the year the movement has spread not only across the United States but internationally with activists organising demonstrations in some 78 countries across the globe. www.mua.org.au

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PHOTO: Mitch Jennings: Great Lakes Advocate

SPORT

JUNIORWELTERWEIGHT CROWN BECKONS FOR COMRADE CHAD

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WBO junior-welterweight crown beckons for MUA comrade Chad “Hollywood” Bennett after he successfully defended his WBO Oriental junior-welterweight title with an emphatic fourth round TKO of challenger Sapaptech Sor Sakorat before a capacity crowd of 1200 at Club Forster in March.

A further defence of his Oriental title against Ghana’s James Armah in May will see Bennett tackle WBO number one contender Cesar Cuenca for the WBO world junior-

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welterweight title with current holder Timothy Bradley set to move up a division to fight pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao.

Sakorat has a reputation as a slow starter and Bennett’s pre-fight plan to press the action early paid dividends as he closed the distance on the Thai and quickly found his range particularly with some vicious body rips. Bennett scored the TKO on the back of his attacks to the body which saw him floor Sakorat on six occasions before the fight was stopped in round four of the scheduled 12. www.mua.org.au

“He’s a southpaw and I did find him a bit awkward through that first round but once I found my range with those body shots I knew I could get him,” Bennett said after the fight.

UPDATE: On June 1, Bennett followed up with another win, stopping James Armah (17-2, 7 KOs) in eight rounds at the Panthers Club, Newcastle. Bennett dropped Armah in round one but Armah rebounded to have Bennett down twice in round three. The 39 year old Australian recovered and at 0.50 of www.mua.org.au

“He’s a southpaw and I did find him a bit awkward through that first round but once I found my range with those body shots I knew I could get him.”

round eight referee Steve Hughes crowned Bennett. The 36-year-old Ghana-born Armah had only lost once previously by majority ten round decision in 2009.

Mitch Jennings, Great Lakes Advocate

‘And the winner is’ ... Chad Bennett successfully defended his WBO Oriental junior-welterweight title against Thailand’s Sapaptech Sor Sakorat at Club Forster in March. (left) Chad lands a blow and knocks down James Armah (right).

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SPORT

MICK DOLEMAN AND THE NRL BACKS WHITE RIBBON Deputy National Secretary Mick Doleman - White Ribbon’s Ambassador of the Year - tossed the coin at a recent Australia - New Zealand rugby league test held in Newcastle, raising awareness about violence against women...

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eputy National Secretary Mick Doleman - White Ribbon’s Ambassador of the Year - tossed the coin at the International Rugby League Match (Australia vs New Zealand) held in Newcastle recently.

Mick was present at the game to promote the White Ribbon cause, and to partner with the Rugby League to say no to violence against women. Interviewed prior to the game, Mick spoke out on this important cause

“Violence against women is a serious problem in our society. Statistics show that one in three Australian women over the age of 15 have reported experiencing physical or sexual violence at some time in their lives.

In addition to the obvious personal costs to the women involved, this violence costs our community. In the 2009 Time for Action report KPMG estimated that violence against women and their children cost the Australian

“Statistics show that one in three Australian women over the age of 15 have reported experiencing physical or sexual violence at some time in their lives.”

MUA/ITF MEMBERS TAKE THE PLUNGE

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he MUA/ITF teams travelled to Port Augusta for the annual Annaconda Adventure Race which attracted some 1700 entrants on the weekend of 6 November 2011. The Annaconda Adventure race is recognised as the biggest in the world for this type of event.

The race is made up a 13.5 km run, 1.9 km swim, 13 km paddle and 35 km mountain bike, finished off with 2 km trot the finish line (some manage to walk over the line). In 2011 we had one individual, two corporate teams and a number of juniors participating for the first time. The junior event attracted 653 entrants.

The weekend was a huge success and the community supporting the event was overwhelmed by the number of entrants.

Phil McCorriston (Patrick) achieved a personal best in the individual event by finishing in 27th position with a time under 5 hours. ‘Anyone who can do the race under 5 hours is up there with the best.’

MUA No 1 team managed to finish in just under 6 hours. MUA No 2 team got lost some where on the bike leg and the announcer made some comment that MUA No 2 team were late because they had been on strike!

Our juniors did us all proud and covered the 4 km course with ease. Everyone did very

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economy $13.6 billion annually and this was expected to rise to $15.6 billion by 2021. Domestic and family violence is also the major cause of homelessness for women and their children. White Ribbon works to stop this insidious violence.”

The MUA has been a proud partner of White Ribbon for several years, and all branches are key participants. The MUA has encouraged all officials and delegates to become Ambassadors and promote the cause in their worksites.

As Ambassador of the Year, Mick will continue to attend important events throughout the coming year. All MUA members are encouraged to get involved - you can find out more about white ribbon at www.whiteribbon.org.au

well, even Frank with the hole in his foot.

Yeah, there are always hard luck stories.

This year’s best hard luck story was: “I missed the buoy and had to change course and go around it” and “I was going down the hill real fast and (Wayne) Grima passed me without saying hello”. Sorry guys, no prize for second!

Many thanks to all who assisted and participated including the sponsorship and donations from the WA Branch, ITF Australia and Sealanes.

Anyone interested next year please let me know and get out and start training!

www.mua.org.au

MUA FRIEND SWIMS ROTTNEST FOR CHARITY

“MUA encourages all officials and delegates to become White Ribbon ambassadors and promote the cause in their worksites.”

SUB-HEAD PARTICIPANTS: MUA Individual: Phillip McCorriston MUA team 1: Frank Heedes, Keith McCorriston, Wayne Grima and Dave Boldy MUA team 2: Aaron Davies, Gary Bickley, Clayton Gunning and Andy Dijkstra.

MUA Juniors: Bailey Fitzpatrick (Marathon Man), Abby McCorriston and Cameron Bickley, Keith McCorriston

Friend to the union movement, Chris Reeve, was successful in his solo attempt at this year’s Rottnest Channel Swim, which he undertook with MUA support to raise money for the Tas Bull Foundation (see Page 6.) Chris is well known to many of our WA membership and he admirably chose to dedicate his swim to raising funds for Tas Bull International Aid, the international arm of the MUA. Chris finished a very respectable 41st, clocking 5 hours 44 minutes for the gruelling 19.5 km course through shark-infested waters off the coast of WA... (yep we think he’s mad too!) It is a real achievement to just finish the course, so congratulations Chris on an incredible effort!

Among many projects Tas Bull International Aid supports are Ons Plek, a refuge set up for street kids in the poverty-stricken townships of South Africa. Ons Plek provides support for girls on the street through shelter and empowerment programmes and makes a huge difference to those most in need at the grass roots level.

Funds raised from Chris’ swim will go towards supporting this worthwhile project.

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Auckland wharfies perform the Haka to send a message to POAL that they won’t be intimidated.