BY
SUE BOLTON
On April 14, ballot papers will be posted to all members of the Maritime Union of Australia for what is likely to be the most significant MUA election in years, with opposition tickets in most MUA branches, as well as an opposition ticket for three of the four national officers' positions.
The MUA Rank and File ticket, which originated in Western Australia during the 1999 MUA election, is contesting all WA branch positions, three of the four national positions and two positions in the Central NSW branch.
MUA Rank and File candidate for WA branch secretary Chris Cain told Green Left Weekly that the members gave the incumbent officials the chance to change things in 1999 when they were returned to office, and they've delivered on nothing. Four years later, says Cain, we still have casualisation, we still have seafarers blacklisted, we still have workers who've been injured through occupational health and safety not being properly addressed. We still have union officials going off for drinks with the bosses.
Basic issues needed to be addressed four years ago and they haven't been permanency of employment for wharfies; permanency of employment for seafarers; and winning back some type of roster system for seafarers, taking it back out of the bosses' hands.
When our [seafarers'] roster went, what went with that was the militancy, because seafarers then became company-employed. The ones who were company-employed were then terrified to speak up because if they did and their job finished, they were never picked for a job again.
Ian Bray, the MUA Rank and File candidate for WA assistant branch secretary recalls the way in which the seafarers' roster was lost. It was the MUA national leadership, under the leadership of current national secretary Paddy Crumlin, which took the initiative to propose the abandonment of the seafarers' roster. The initiative didn't come from the ship owners, although they heartily applauded the initiative.
Bray told GLW that the proposal to abandon the roster was made with great haste and very little input from the members. The proposal was voted on at a two-day national delegates conference, but it was only reported back to the monthly stopwork meetings after the decision had been made. Rank and file members never had a chance to vote to keep the roster, despite the devastating impact of this decision on seafarers' livelihood.
At the two-day conference to give up the roster, the delegates were berated with a full day of speeches from the officials in which they painted a picture of the death of the industry. Crumlin told the delegates that if they didn't give up the roster, the industry would be gone. He argued that if the seafarers agreed to give up the roster, they'd get money from the government to revive the shipping industry. Almost six years later, Bray says they're still waiting for the first cent to arrive from the federal government.
When asked if the current MUA officials are using the enterprise bargaining agreements to try to win back some of the conditions which have been lost, Bray replied that the incumbent officials are allowing conditions to go further backwards with each EBA. If members call for steps to be taken to restore the seafarers' roster or bring back a common labour pool for wharfies, the incumbents reply that 'The good old days are gone. This is the new industry. You can't live in the past forever. You can't be a dinosaur. It's against the law'.
The experience of the P&O EBA where the MUA officials never had a perspective of using the EBA to improve conditions on the waterfront prompted an MUA Rank and File ticket to run for positions in the Central NSW branch, located in Sydney.
From the very beginning of the EBA process at P&O, the MUA officials announced that they would not entertain the idea of industrial action despite the fact that industrial action is legal during an enterprise bargaining period. That just signalled to P&O that they could walk all over us, said Shane Bentley, MUA Rank and File candidate for Central NSW branch secretary.
Bentley's running mate, MUA Rank and File candidate for Central NSW assistant branch secretary Eddie King has worked on the waterfront since 1970 and says he's never seen such a level of dissatisfaction among rank and file members as exists now.
King's motivation for running in the election was the P&O EBA. As if things weren't difficult enough for casual wharfies before the agreement, they are even worse now, he says. Casual wharfies already live at the end of the phone, having to ring up each afternoon to find out if they are working the next day. Now, since the P&O EBA for White Bay in Sydney was rammed through, casual wharfies have to ring up on the day of their shift as well to find out if they might have to start up to two hours earlier or later than they were told the day before.
How can any casual wharfie have children or any kind of life outside of work when their shifts are so unpredictable? It's not only the casual wharfies who are affected by the unpredictability, asks Bentley. Their partners also have to put their lives on hold, especially if they have children, because of the unpredictable hours of work.
According to Hakan Taulla who is standing as an MUA Rank and File candidate for assistant national secretary, wharfies in Melbourne can remain casuals for up to eight years. The other two members of the MUA Rank and File ticket running for national positions are Roy Atkins for assistant national secretary and Darryl Crane for the second national assistant secretary position.
Cain explained that the Rank and File ticket is running because we want to give the union back to the membership. It is their union, and leaders are there to be told what to do by the rank and file. But the current officials believe they own the union election.
We're also running on a campaign to bring back an industry roster, Cain added. We want solidarity with other unions. We want casualisation to stop. We want permanency of employment for every wharfie. We also believe that we've got to do a hell of a lot in regard to health and safety, because we believe that if we leave it any longer, there are going to be major accidents down on the waterfront. We want the job delegates association working. We want active occupational health and safety delegates down on the wharves.
A recent example of the union's lack of consultation is the fact that the MUA officials have agreed to, or are turning a blind eye to, the introduction of wharfies employed by labour hire companies at Patrick. According to MUA Rank and File candidate for WA deputy branch secretary Peter Treacy who works for Patrick, the MUA officials haven't organised any meetings of Patrick wharfies to discuss the issue. Already, labour hire workers are being used by Patrick to deny work to the pre-existing casual workforce. Some of the casuals at Patrick in Fremantle have worked for the company for up to six years.
One big problem in the MUA, says Cain, is that the MUA is totally dominated by the Labor Party. The MUA gave $100,000 in members' money to the ALP in the last election without even asking the members. And I particularly don't support the Labor Party because they're not 'labour' in the true sense of the word.
Let's look at the Labor Party. There was a big blue down at Westernport BHP in Victoria and a picket line is set up. [Labor Premier Steve] Bracks goes and sends coppers in belting workers on the picket line. That's the Labor Party for you.
Then look at the Labor Party in Western Australia, [Labor Premier Geoff] Gallop got elected with the support of the union movement. He's just given all the government contracts, the building contracts to scab outfits, so that's the payment for getting him back. I believe it's time for the union movement to have a serious look at what they want. I'm involved with the Socialist Alliance. I think it's a good party, and there's room for the trade union movement in it.
An important issue in the current MUA election is the need for a fair and transparent election. We believe there were major discrepancies with the ballot in the 1999 election, said Cain. We don't mind the MUA running its own election, but what we do mind is the way it's run. We want a fair election.
The MUA is the only union to run its own elections and there were a number of problems with the 1999 ballot, including the addition of new members to the electoral roll during the eight-week voting period, the printing of 2200 spare ballot papers which were kept in the union rooms and the fact that the national returning officer collected the ballot papers each day during the eight-week voting period, without the presence of scrutineers.
Although the union and the national returning officer have agreed to some minor modifications in the election process, the main demand of the MUA Rank and File ticket that ballot papers be returned to a locked bag in the post office which can't be touched by the returning officer until the day of the count has not been agreed to by the union.
To contact the MUA Rank and File candidates, ring: Chris Cain 0407 850 084; Ian Bray 0403 325 376; Peter Treacy (08) 9458 2860; Shane Bentley 0419 278 144; Eddie King (02) 9758 2159.
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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