Work at all P&O Automotive and General Stevedoring (POAGS) wharves shut down nationwide in all 15 ports for 24 hours at midday on July 14 after the death of another waterside worker. It was the third this year, the second at POAGS operations and the third fatality at Appleton Dock in seven years.
A 41-year-old Melbourne waterside worker, Stephen Piper, was crushed to death that morning at Appleton Dock.
"The industry is in crisis”, said Paddy Crumlin, national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia. "It's the third fatality on the wharves in five months - and we said last time we lost a worker in March we needed urgent action to overcome the lack of safety on the job.
"How can I assure families, mothers and fathers of young families, that they need not fear about their partners going to work in the morning? The fact is that it's hard to make that promise and it makes me sick to the stomach, that is the truth."
Years of neglect
Crumlin said there was a yawning gap and inadequacies in state and federal safety legislation covering the nation's wharves, especially in bulk and general operations, after years of neglect and deregulation under the Howard government
"We're not copping inaction”, he said. "The industry's safety record is appalling. We need national legislation. We need regulation, not guidelines. We need the federal government to intervene. The industry has failed to regulate itself and urgent intervention is now required."
Since the last two deaths, the union has held national stevedoring conferences of workers to examine the safety issues and lobbied the government for national regulations.
[Abridged from www.mua.org.au.]