hHutchinson Ports company agrees to negotiate

The Maritime Union of Australia is continuing to protest the sacking of 97 port workers by late night text message. The 97 represent nearly half of the workforce of Hutchison Ports Australia, a subsidiary of the world’s largest stevedoring company.

The union has maintained protests outside Hutchison Ports’ Sydney and Brisbane container terminals since an interim order of the Federal Court directed the company to reinstate the workers. Hutchison has not allowed the sacked workers to return but is paying their wages.

As part of the dispute, the MUA has also targeted Vodafone stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Vodafone is half owned by the same international conglomerate as Hutchison Ports Australia.

At a protest in Sydney on 26 August, Adrian Evans, deputy secretary of the Western Australian branch of the MUA, said that the protests were aimed at Hutchison’s chairman. “Li Ka-Shing is the 17th richest man in the world. If he’s going to make all these people redundant, then we’re going to hit him where it hurts”, he told Red Flag.

On 28 August, the union announced that the company had agreed to a six-week timetable of negotiations over the sackings. MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said the talks are “what we have been after all along”. As part of the deal, all sacked workers will continue to be paid wages for the length of the negotiations.

Community assemblies at Hutchison Ports terminals continue.