BY SAM WAINWRIGHT
PERTH — The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has won a dispute with Adsteam Marine at a gas pipe-laying project off the north-west coast of Western Australia. The workers walked off the job because of serious safety concerns.
Adsteam Marine is laying trunk pipeline for the Saipan Woodside project a few kilometres out to sea from Karratha. Sections of pipe are brought to the site by a mother ship and unloaded onto specialised vessels where the pipeline is assembled by MUA members.
The mother ships are flag-of-convenience vessels, whose predominantly Thai and Filipino crews were unloading the pipe — despite an agreement, made when the project began, that all crane drivers and dogmen should have Australian certification.
Under the previous leadership, the WA MUA branch had turned a blind-eye to this practice, despite workers' complaints.
Not only were workers concerned about working with unqualified crane drivers and dogmen, they were concerned about communication difficulties. The mother ship's seafarers were not all fluent in English and used different hand signals. Following three "near misses" on July 20, MUA members walked off the deck.
Newly elected WA MUA secretary Chris Cain gave his full support to the members, declaring, "There is one thing this union will not tolerate at all, that is the safety of our membership being compromised by rogue employers ... If that means a blue on the job, then so be it."
With the support of the union, work stopped on six vessels for two days. Adsteam tried to portray the stop work as strike action, and threatened to take the matter to the WA Industrial Relations Commission. Cain explained, "I and the branch got orders put on us [for the Adsteam workers] to return to work. Let me say now that there was no way we were going to do that. Bad laws must be broken and we will never compromise the safety of our members."
The company was unable to back up its earlier claim that the crew of the mother ship had Australian certification. Faced with the work force's refusal to return to work, Adsteam backed down. The company paid the union's legal expenses and agreed to employ Australian certified crane drivers and dogmen. The Australian operators will be employed in a supervisory capacity — the Thai and Filipino seafarers keep their jobs.
In other news, at a WA branch meeting of the MUA on July 28, members unanimously passed a motion in solidarity with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union activists facing charges as part of the Skilled Six case in Victoria. Cain reminded his audience of the huge support given to the MUA by the Victorian branch of the AMWU during the Patrick dispute and pledged support to any unionist being hounded by the government, courts and employers for fighting for workers' rights.
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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