Same old from waterfront employers

Enterprise agreement negotiations are under way for two of Australia’s largest stevedoring companies, DP World and Hutchison Ports. Together, these companies employ 2,200 wharfies. True to form, each company has come to the table with nothing but crumbs, bad faith and outright bastardry.

DP World is generously offering what it euphemistically calls flexible work hours (roster manipulation), competitive promotion criteria (head picking) and more days off (cancellation of shifts). And that’s just what it is willing to “give”.

What it wants in return is the removal of income protection, a freeze on allowances and guaranteed earnings for casuals, reduced sick leave entitlements and a minimum shift duration of four hours (it is currently eight hours).

The Maritime Union of Australia log of claims includes the elimination of “supplementary” (totally casualised) labour, guarantees on automation and outsourcing, and a disciplinary clause to stop management from writing its own rules for punishing workers.

DP World is pursuing an industrial strategy of confrontation and provocation. On two separate occasions the company has refused to meet or walked away from negotiations with union representatives.

In early February the company announced a “rollover” offer of a year, with no improvements and minimal pay rises. Negotiating in 12 months would enable the company to take advantage of a likely economic downturn, as well as enabling waterfront employers to take on their workforces one company at a time.

After the union rejected the rollover, the company cancelled workers’ income protection as punishment. The union has applied for a ballot for protected industrial action.

Workers at Hutchison Ports are also facing serious attacks. Workers there have overwhelmingly endorsed industrial action, which began on 17 January after one of the most aggressive logs of claims by a stevedoring company in recent memory – and despite a challenge in the Fair Work Commission from the company. Action will include rolling stoppages, work bans and limitations.

Later in January, Hutchison withdrew its attacks on long service leave. But with attacks on the 30-hour work week, $10/hour pay cuts, outsourcing, automation and much more still on the table, workers voted to begin a 24-hour stoppage on 24 January. Paul McAleer, secretary of the Sydney branch of the MUA, told a crowd of wharfies and community supporters who had gathered to support the strike at Port Botany, “In negotiations Hutchison management had boasted they want to be the ‘Tiger Air’ of stevedoring”, displaying the utter contempt they have for their own workforce.

The protest marched on Patrick Port Logistics, where Hutchison had sent a vessel to be worked, in anticipation of the strike. Riot police blocked the march and detained two MUA members, including Paul McAleer. Protesters formed a blockade to great effect, preventing trucks from entering the terminal for a period; the MUA members were eventually released. This was a small battle in what is turning out to be a war for working conditions on the waterfront.