Workers and unionists gathered at Station Pier, Port Melbourne, on January 21, to protest luxury cruise company Carnival Cruise’s exploitation of its workers. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) is campaigning for the workers to be covered by a union agreement.
Carnival Cruise, owned by an American billionaire, employs migrants from Indonesia and the Philippines, but pays them as little as $2.50 an hour. It exploits legal loopholes that exempt employment on its vessels from labour laws.
Sydney branch MUA organiser Shane Reside said Carnival flies in workers on short-term contracts. “Workers have reported being made to work in excess of 10 hours a day for more than a month without a break and going for weeks trapped working below deck without seeing daylight.”
The protest was supported by the Victorian Trades Hall, as well as members of the Community and Public Sector Union (Vic), Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, United Workers Union, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees Union and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA).
Adam Portelli, from the MEAA, said many Australian performers, musicians and backstage crew work these ships alongside the international crew, and that they support their co-workers’ rights — including “fair compensation for their work and good working conditions — regardless of their country of origin”.
Jordan van den Lamb, from the Victorian Socialists, said Labor is responsible for these legal loopholes existing.
Danae Bosler, assistant secretary of Victorian Trades Hall Council, said “not a single ordinary Victorian thinks that paying people $2.50 an hour to work … is okay.”
Reside said Carnival must improve pay, food, living quarters, internet access and safety standards on its three ships home-ported in Australia: Encounter, Splendor and Adventure.
“Carnival has imported the labour conditions of Bali or Phuket to Australia but is still charging passengers Australian fares. Where does all that money go? Straight into the pockets of the multi-billionaire American owner. This is an ultra-profitable dirty racket, plain and simple.”
[Sign the petition demanding an end to Carnival Cruise’s exploitation of its migrant workforce.]