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Maritime Workers' Journal

In this edition
Dear [firstname,fallback=Sir/Madam]

MUA facebook generation on the march

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.

MUA facebook generation on the march

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.”

MUA facebook generation on the march

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.

MUA facebook generation on the march

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.

MUA facebook generation on the march

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.”

MUA National Office
365 Sussex Street, Sydney Australia

Tel +61 2 9267 9134

email@mua.org.au