As wharfies prepare to go on a 48-hour strike at Patrick Stevedores’ Port Botany site, memories of the historic 1998 waterfront dispute are fresh.
That dispute saw the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) pitted against Patrick Corporation, which locked out its workforce as part of a restructure to deunionise the company backed by the federal government .
But in this dispute the maritime union is not fighting to prevent non-union workers taking their jobs, but fighting for conditions they think will save jobs as automation replaces wharfies.
The union has notified Patrick Stevedores it will begin a 48-hour strike at Port Botany in Sydney on Wednesday morning. It will have another 48-hour strike in Brisbane next Wednesday. These follow two 72-hour strikes in Fremantle in the last week.
Strikes in January 2016 were the first national port strike at Patrick Stevedores since 1998. Memories of that dispute will be fresh, as Patrick Stevedores has warned it may lock workers out if they go on strike.
And to make matters worse, the union’s old antagonist from the 1998 dispute, Chris Corrigan, has bid for his new company Qube Logistics to buy Patrick Stevedores this year. Whether a new workplace deal is struck or not, the wharfies may soon have a new paymaster.
MUA Sydney branch secretary Paul McAleer told Guardian Australia the lockout threat was designed to intimidate the workforce but the union members would carry out the strike regardless.
He said the MUA had offered to work more midnight and weekend shifts but forego higher penalty rates for these shifts in return for cutting the working week from 35 to 32 hours.
McAleer said “the theory is that with automation there’s a reduced requirement for workers. The indications by Qube are that when they take over they’ll seek more automation. We think if we have fewer hours we’ll save jobs.”
Patrick Stevedores has reduced jobs from 440 to 260 at Port Botany in the past two years due to automation.
McAleer said the union wanted more workers made permanent, with regular rosters, rather than working on classifications which can see them notified of their next shift with just one day’s notice.
McAleer said Patrick Stevedores had “shifted the goal posts”. “We saved $1.5m on our previous proposal and made it cost-neutral. It’s incredibly disingenuous of them to reject it – we have no other option but to go on strike.”
McAleer suggested Qube Logistics may not be willing to buy Patrick Stevedores unless a new workplace deal was signed.
Senior Patrick executive, Alex Badenoch, told Guardian Australia the union proposal would require the company to hire 50 extra workers to cover reduced hours. Labour cost would increase by 8% to 9% as a result even before other pay rises, she said.
“The claim the union proposal is cost-neutral is simply not true. You can’t hire 50 more people to do the same work and it be cost-neutral without pay cuts.”
Badenoch said the company was prepared to consider “all options up to and including a lockout”, but refuted the characterisation this was a threat.
The lockout option raises the prospect workers and other community members will picket Patrick Stevedores sites, as they did in 1998.
McAleer said “despite government attempts to wipe out protest in this country, there are still a large number of members of the community who wish to stand up and fight back.
“That’s their prerogative, I can’t say what the community is going to do. I hope that workers come together in disputes to ensure that we win.”
MUA Queensland deputy secretary said community pickets were likely. “Yep. The barbecues have all been cleaned off after the Hutchison dispute, and the gas bottles are all ready to go,” he said, in reference to barbecues to sustain lengthy pickets at Australia’s third port operator, Hutchison Ports, after job cuts last year.
Badenoch said the economic harm of a picket would be significant, costing the company and its customers several million dollars.
“We handle half the imports and exports to this country, what you’re doing is damaging the nation above and beyond damage to Patrick’s,” she said.
Badenoch said a new workplace agreement was not a prerequisite to selling Patrick Stevedores. “We won’t sign up to unreasonable or damaging claims. The union has assumed we have to get this deal done at any cost, but that’s not the case. We must be responsible to make sure the company is set up for success whoever owns it.”
