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page 4 Logging On
LIES AND LOSERS The constant and repetitive liturgy of lies and distortions from the Australian Mines and Metals Association against seafarers in the offshore industry marks a low point in public debate unequalled since some of the Howard–driven media support for the Patrick criminal conspiracy against the MUA a bit over 10 years ago. News Limited – especially The Australianand the shabby editorialists appointed by the Dirty Digger to feed his ego and megalomania – have been typically the worst offenders. Isuppose like many others we perversely wear their ideological hysterics against our activities with a bit of pride. But they’re hard work. The only place we get a run on our side of things is on our own website. It was a full time job trying to correct or even publicly challenge many of the outrageous assertions getting workshopped up by those roosters at that bastion of objectivity the HR Nicholls Society, a political organisation dedicated to Untruth, Injustice and the Corporate American Way. Ex Labor Party Minister and constant critic of the same party, Peter Walsh, returned off his neo conservative life support system to compare us to the Whitlam Government in the 70s. Thanks for the wrap, but that was nearly 40 years ago, mate. Must have been a traumatic time for him. The Employer Bias Group, the ACCI got hot and sweaty after a session in the HR Nicholls sauna bath and waded in heavily intoxicated by the prospects of a return to WorkChoices in an election year. Abbot‘s IR spokesman Senator Abetz, not the master of the understatement it seems, doubled our wages overnight, stripped us of all our skills and predicted the end of civilized life as we know it. They made Chicken Little sound like a Trappist monk. The Australian Shipowners Association, presumably feeling a bit inadequate not having a headline, predicted it would sink the remaining blue water ships, strangely connecting two different industries that have happily lived in coexistence for 40 years with big wage differences, leave systems, working hours and customer markets. And the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers leadership, agreed with all of them, while hastily reassuring their membership that all of the gains won by the MUA would flow on to them. What a gang. Julia Gillard, the Minister for Industrial relations made a few points about our negotiations and actions being legal and consistent with the Act and coolly encouraged all of the parties to get on with closing an agreement and building a safe and efficient hydrocarbon resource sector. Which we have done. Ironically she was party to the same information as all of the heaving, sobbing and salivating MUA lynch party, knowing the only truth was that the MUA claim was a catch-up to wages already being paid in the industry. The difference in attitude I guess is she didn’t have any axe to grind with the union and the many workers that rely on our professional industrial advocacy, other than ensuring the Fair Work Bill was not just a name. STEVEDORES GALORE Hutchinson has been successful in the tender for the new terminal operation at Botany in NSW. They werealso successful over a year or so ago at Fisherman’sIsland in Brisbane, and the weights are going on the Victorian Government to open a third terminal in Melbourne. It’s a bit confusing why new stevedores are such a priority. Politically the Productivity Commission and the pointy-headed advocates of abstract markets have been huffing and puffing about widening the market and bringing lower costs to port users, but they have little hard evidence that this is the case other than their mathematical algorithms. Outside this academic womb and in a real world, stevedoring productivity relies on long-term commitment to capital expenditure in relationships between stevedores and state providers of infrastructure. This requires a massive capital commitment by the stevedore to terminal enhancement, technology and capacity. Returns are measured over decades with entry into the market characterised by years of losses before break-even is reached. This will be case with Hutchinson as well. The tendering process has the effect of existing stevedores winding back their expansion and maintenance programs until the market with the new stevedore is properly appraised, a disincentive to productivity. The entry of the new stevedore takes years. The NSW tendering process in one form or another is already over five years and startup is a further couple of years away. In Melbourne it couldn’t happen before 2017. Together with Port Authorities trying to claw out the cost of dredging and the other infrastructurework required for a new site from existing stevedores this becomes a powerful brake on capital efficiency over a long time. New roads and rail need to be developed to meet intermodal increases in freight forwarding, and the expense of this is far greater in meeting additional business outlets in a port. Internationally because of this thereareusually veryfew stevedores in any single port. This is the case other than in some mega ports of places like Rotterdam or LA/Long Beach. This makes commercial and public policy sense particularly given the current and ongoing credit squeeze. Look at the problems DPW have in meeting those challenges. Even some of the largest ports like Singapore or Hong Kong are dominated by a single operator and are highly productive. China adopts this model as well. Why the difference here then? Weneed a national stevedore policy, and should not leave it to the whims, egos and vagaries of state politics. The Federal Minster for Transport and Infrastructure needs to herd all the cats into one room and one national port policy. <b>TRAINING A NO BRAINER </b> The bullshit of the bosses in the offshore negotiations included their self-denial about the stuff up with maritime training over the last 10 years. And it’s not just restricted to the offshore industry. Thestevedoring industry has been woefully neglectful of their responsibilities as well for different reasons. Inthe offshore it’s as if the rise of the price of hydrocarbons has caught them all with their duds in a ditch. They must have the project management skills of the government of Haiti. You would think that high prices clearly translate into greater drilling, translating into more facilities requiring more workers to build and service when completed. Perhaps someone forgot these workers don’t grow on Pilbara trees and take years to train. The higher wages being paid to hydrocarbon workers over the last eight to 10 years are testament to a shortage of skilled workers – seafarers being only one small part. The oil majors leave training to the contractors, as they are the employers of labour, and the contractors say they can’t fully make training commitments until the tenders are awarded. So it’s the blame game, with the Australian Mines and Metals Association, those masters of blaming everyone else but themselves, representing both oil majors and contractors. If their intellectual productivity output in this area turned to dynamite they wouldn’thave enough to blow the wax out of their ears. In stevedoring therearedifferent issues for the same dismal outcome. The casualisation of labour and over-reliance on supplementaryand guaranteed workers has been a disincentive to train to best practice standards. In making it clear what those standards are the MUA is doing an international benchmarking with the cooperation of other dockers’ unions. Simulators, discrete training facilities, agreed modules including theoretical and practical training feature in stevedoring operations across the world, making a clear link between training and the minimisation of accidents both to machinery and goods but most importantly to the workers on those sites. It’s not the case here, and training has slipped to a low point, with little or no designated infrastructure. Both areas need addressing and it should be noted by all that the MUA takes its role as one of the stakeholders very seriously, and looks forward to working with employers and government on the urgent solutions required. The blue water shipping industry, labouring under narrow profit margins and high exposure to risk, has been amodel of consistency with training, but has been let down by failures to have their commitments properly recognised, including by government. The new shipping reform package needs to address this. PHOTO: The national secretary and partner Gayle welcomed by the PM and wife Therese at the Australia Day reception, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
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page 6 Pandora's Box
MELBOURNE, Saturday, October 24: A container ship sails out of the harbour into open water with five-high stacks of containers balanced precariously on its deck. Unsecured. Despite protests from the workers at East Swanson Dock, the boxes were not lashed. The gang were still working securing the boxes when the order came that the MSC Krittikawas set to sail regardless. “We had two to three bays to go – around 13 boxes, five high,” said Sammy Puskic, MUA waterside worker. “Only two were lashed on one bay. It’s dangerous. Who knows what was in the containers? It could have been chemicals that would have contaminated the bay. We said we were not prepared to leave the ship unfinished. But we wereordered off by the supervisor and the ship’s captain.” Sam and his workmates followed the order, but notified the union. They reported a full bay was not completed but the six lashers were ordered to cease all work and disembark. “It put lives at risk,” said Sammy. “If there’s rough seas and the crew is trying to lash containers five high, you could end up with aman overboard. But some of those shipping owners don’t give ashit. A bloke goes overboard and they just pick up someone else at the next port. Who knows what goes on?” “The end of the day, lives are at risk,” said one worker who asked not to be named. “Dockworkers’ lives, seafarers’ lives and the lives of people in the harbour. If the ship gets a nice big jerk from the tug, boxes can come off. If you are going out the Heads it gets quite rough and you can get them coming off there too. Boxes can fall into the water, onto the wharf or onto recreational boats in the harbour.” Or worse, you can end up with an environmental catastrophe, like when containers of ammonia nitrate came off the Pacific Venturerin March 2009 in heavy seas, putting a hole in the hull of the ship and spilling 30 tonnes of heavy oil 20 kilometres along our coastline. “It’s a Pandora’s box,” he said. “Ships sailing with containers loose on deck are dangerous – to dock workers, seafarers, the public who use the harbour and to our environment. We had lashers on board ready to secure the last bay and they were instructed to get off the ship – they had no choice.” The International Transport Workers’ Federation has long demanded that lashing work be done in port by trained workers. But ship owners often attempt to save money and time by sailing out of the harbour, then getting crew to secure the cargo at sea. So when the Krittikasailed into the port of Nelson in New Zealand, the local union took action. At the time MUNZ was holding its national conference with international guests from the US West Coast, Australia and Europe. The Krittikasat in the harbour for the day, while the world’s dockworkers and the local ITF representative made their point. “It again demostrates the importance of the international dock workers movement,” MUA National Secretaryand ITF Dock Workers Chair, Paddy Crumlin told conference. “I was there as an MUA delegate to the conference,” said Dave Schleibs. “Bobby Patchett rang me to let me know the ship was coming in. I spoke to Gary Parsloe and Russel Mayne. Ray Familathe, ILWU was there from the States. We visited the ship. The master gave his full commitment that seafarers would not be doing the work again and stevedoring went ahead.” “It’s bad enough lashing on the dock let alone open ocean,” said one Melbourne worker. “The instability is incredible – lifting up three high bars when the ship’s moving. Seafarers have got a tough job; let’s not make it any tougher. Dockworkers aretrained to do the work and want to do it safely.”
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page 7 Safety Alerts
SEVERED FINGER Workers at DP World, Melbourne, downed tools on December 14 over the mishandling of a job accident two days earlier, when waterside worker Pino Mascaro, bleeding heavily from a crushed hand and severed finger did not get urgent medical attention. On December 12 at 5.00 pm, a container crushed Pino Mascaro’s hand while he was unlocking a twist top. Bleeding heavily he cried out for help to workmate Shaun Harry who was lashing nearby. What followed would be best described as a comedy of errors had it not almost ended in tragedy. Shaun tried to get his injured mate to first aid but the ute wouldn’t start. He called on the job supervisor for an ambulance. The supervisor questioned the severity of the injury and refused. So Shaun got in a van and drove Pino to the first aid station, run by a private contractor. They called 000 for an ambulance, but it had trouble with directions and got lost. Another employee arrived with Nino’s severed finger. First aid put it on ice only to be told by 000 that was not the right thing to do. The ambulance took 12 minutes to arrive. Meanwhile workers were directed to take photos of the accident scene.But by this time a call had gone through to the union. Dave Schleibs, deputy branch secretary was on the phone to management voicing members’ concerns about the lack of safety protocols. Crane operator Murray Costello wouldnotreturntothe crane as directed by the supervisor. He was too affected by the injury to continue working. By this time the union had got management in and the workers in the immediate area were stood down until WorkCover did an inspection. Everyone involved in the incident was interviewed by Lisa Pitt, the WorkCover Coordinator at DPW and were offered counselling. But there were not enough cab charges for them to return home. Some shared cabs and Lisa herself had to drop one employee home. The following midnight, day and afternoon shifts worked as normal. But by Sunday December 13, rumours andreports about the mishandling of the incident circulated on the wharves and the union was again called in. What’s more the supervisor who was on duty the night of the accident was back on that shift. Members expressed concerns about the imminent risk to their health and safety. They refused to start work until they were fully satisfied that procedures were in place in the event of an injury. The delegate reported the members’ views back to the supervisor and on the union’s request management met with the workers to hear their concerns first hand. Management agreed to a level 3first aid officer available at all times in the gatehouse, new protocols and to address the supervisor. Satisfied, the members voted to return to work. Meanwhile attempts to re-attach Pino’s finger in hospital were unsuccessful.
STOPWORK OVER ASBESTOS EXPOSURE The Maritime Union of Australia is demanding an inquiry after workers were exposed to asbestos while working on the $43 billion Gorgon project on Barrow Island in WA. MUA members who have been shifting the asbestos are refusing to return to work the cargo until their safety is guaranteed. Branch Secretary Chris Cain says someworkers were undergoing blood tests and x-rays. "There's a letter going off not only to Chevron but also to the government asking for an inquiry,” hesaid. “It’s going to WorkSafe as well to do their investigations.” "I've come out of a mass meeting with my members and they're very, very distraught." The WA Branch has reported unsafe shipments of asbestos to WorkSafe and alerted other unions on the island after tests confirmed asbestos was being shipped and stevedored without safety precautions.Both ships’ crew and waterside workers have been exposed to the deadly dust. MUA organiser Noel Nielsen reported that drums containing asbestos were shipped from Barrow to Dampier using vessels Bhagwan Mover, Malu ExplorerandKararwain October. The crew of Malu Explorer was told that palletised 200-litre drums containing ACM would be loaded for return to the mainland. They were not provided with training, PPE or instructions. The crew refused to load because drums were not securely banded, pallets were in poor condition and several drum lids and clamps were notsecure.Shipments resumed once the problems were fixed. But when Mermaid’s RoRo were required to handle pallets there were no warning labels on the outside of drums and it was left to the crew of the Malu Explorer to warn their comrades that the pallets contained asbestos. Mermaid’s crew observed debris and dirt on top of the drums and pallets and questioned management but shipments continued. Samples were provided to KJV safety manager Harry Callahan for analysis. But it was not until January 6 that workers were advised at a pre-start meeting that the sample was positive. The union is concerned the vessels have been contaminated, the crews exposed and all persons onshore who were working with or in the vicinity of the pallets have experienced some level of exposure. A spokeswoman for Chevron says an investigation into the asbestos has begun. She says asbestos used in pipes and fences was buried when oil fields were first developed about 40 years ago.
OFFSHORE TIME BOMB People are being picked up with no tickets to drive cranes and fishing vessels are beingused to transport equipment to offshore LNG developmentsin WA in breach of safety regulations, according to WA Branch Secretary Chris Cain. “We are going to have a death,” he told National Council in November. “It’s atime bomb, an absolute disgrace.”
MISDECLARED CARGO PUTS LIVES AT RISK Shippers continue to put lives at risk byproviding incorrect information about the weight of cargo, despite intensive efforts by lines to spell out the dangers of overloadingcontainers, LloydsList reports. An investigation by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch found that the top containers in seven of nine stacks, which were shown on the loading plan as empty, actually had contents weighing between 15 and 30 tonnes in one recent accident. Maersk Line is now developing new software to help identify overloaded boxes using an alert system. Meanwhile terminal operators frequently ignore overloaded containers rather than disrupt cargo-handling operations, industry sources claim.
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page 8 Wage Justice
SEAFARERS IN THE OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY DEMAND EQUAL PAY
MUA seafarers employed in the multi-billion dollar offshore oil and gas industry took industrial action over summer demanding equal pay for equal work on support vessels in the offshore construction jobs and a 30 per cent pay rise over four years, winning a heads of agreement with major employers in February. “This is a crucial agreement for the industry,” MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin told DCN/Lloyds List. “The bones [of the agreement] are the measured and reasonable wage increases and payment of a Project Allowance Bonus for workers on construction projects, which moves with wage increases from January 1. The allowance will be paid at the completion of construction projects. “We fought hard for this payment which now brings maritime workers closer to parity with other workers, like riggers, doing exactly the same task on those projects.” The EBAs will vary from employer to employer but the principle will remain. But the victory did not come easily. Around 400 workers employed by Farstad and Total Marine Services vessels servicing the Northwest Shelf, Timor Sea and Bass Strait voted to take protected action in November, the first industrial action since the oil and gas fields were established. It came after 12 months of unsuccessful negotiations and 10 months after their enterprise agreements had already expired. At the centre of the dispute was wage parity. ‘I’m currently working offshore 12 hours a day, 28 days straight on $296 a day and I hold 26 certificates directly required for my job,” one MUA member wrote to The Australian daily. “The guy next to me is a rigger. He has two tickets – dogman’s and advanced rigging. He gets $1,400 a day. When he isn’t on board I do the rigging. The union initially argued for a $500 allowance to apply to MUA seafarers on construction projects in the offshore industry, closing with modest $175-$215 claims. The claim was to achieve wage parity with workers on existing agreements such as the Brunel Technical Services at the Pluto offshore construction project agreement where MUA seafarers were working alongside other workers, including cooks and riggers on more than $1,000 per day, (see overleaf) But employers backed by hard line Australian Mines and Metal Association and the Australian Chamber of Commerce used the MUA claim to test the new FairWork laws, calling for government intervention and arguing the industrial action should be outlawed and the wage claims were ‘outrageous’ The irony of employer groups representing executives on $6 and $8m salaries arguing against offshore workers earning over $100,000 was not lost on MUA members. (see opposite). Or that the very same employer groups had introduced the high wage packages to lure people onto individual contracts and into the industry during a skills shortage. The Australian Shipowners’ Association also bought into the media debate arguing that the pay hikes would flow onto the blue water shipping industry and price Australian ships out of the market. This was despite the union simultaneously negotatiating enterprise agreements for coastal ships with relatively modest pay claims. Also buying into the dispute was the Murdoch media with ACCI, AMMA given widespread coverage on news and opinion pages and the union battling to even get a letter published as right of reply. (Beating up the MUA, see opposite, Truths and Lies, see overleaf) “We’ve moderated our claims right though these negotiations,” said Mick Doleman, Deputy National Secretary of the MUA. “We would have liked to avoid these actions but our members felt they did not have an alternative to seek a fair outcome.” KIWI SOLIDARITY The MUA seafarers had the solidarity of New Zealand seafarers with MUNZ general secretary Joe Fleetwood arguing in the media that “striking workers wages were spent in working class communities, while employers made vast fortunes in profits. “This is about workers getting their share of the wealth they create,” he said. “After all, they do the work out on the remote rigs and vessels in risky heavy industrial environment. Australian worker have the full support of maritime workers around the world.
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page 17 Britain's Abu Ghraib
A LESSON IN TORTURE FOR YOUNG MARITIME WORKERS
They’re Irish, not Iraqis, but what Gerry Conlon and Paddy Hill suffered under the British prison system rivals Abu Ghraib. “They made me strip naked then all gathered round and took the piss out of me,” Gerry Conlon, a member of the Guildford Four told 70 wide- eyed young maritime workers attending the recent MUA youth conference in Brisbane. “They all spat on me and they all slapped me and then they marched me naked to a cell that had no windows in it. ‘Stand up you dirty stinking Irish bastard’ they said. “They’d bring in policewomen and encourage them to grab my testicles and twist them and pull on them and spit on me. It was all part of the humiliation.” Gerry Conlon and three other young people were ‘fitted’ for terrorist bombings in Guildford in 1974. They were tortured, sentenced to life imprisonment and kept in prison even after the real bombers were found. Gerry and Paddy Hill, a member of theBirmingham Six (another group wrongfully convicted of terrorism offences by British courts) toured Australia courtesy of the WA Branch of the MUA to promote the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (MOJO) a human rights group they set up to assist innocent people both in prison and after their release. Paddy and Gerry spoke in Sydney and Melbourne union rooms in December. Paddy said his experience in many ways was worse after he was released from prison. “Suddenly you’d be sitting in the house and you’d be reading the paper or something. And the next you know the f…ing paper is coming apart at the seams ‘cause the paper is soaking wet,”he recalled. “You are sitting there crying and you don’t even realise that you’re crying, you don’t realise how long you’ve been crying for and most important of all you don’t even know what the f… you are crying for.”
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