Sam Wainwright
Imagine working for 19 hours without a single break, finishing at 3am and then returning to work at 7.45am that same morning for another shift. Conditions such as these have been the norm for workers at Oceanic Cruises, a company that runs ferries to Rottnest Island, a popular tourist and holiday destination off the coast of Perth. Fed up, the company's 22 employees walked off the job on November 20.
Cruise and charter boat operators like Oceanic employ thousands of workers in places such as the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Harbour and the Swan River. They are traditionally non-unionised; the skippers, deckhands and engineers have received inferior conditions to other workers in the maritime industries.
Faced with a declining membership because of technological change and the deliberate destruction of Australian flagged shipping by the Howard government, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has been trying to recruit cruise and charter boat workers.
Those employed on the cruise boat and ferry companies working the Swan River have been joining the MUA, the Australian Marine Officers Union and the Australian Institute for Marine and Power Engineers. Most of the companies have signed an enterprise agreement with the three unions, but the owner of Oceanic, Tony DiLatte, has resisted.
After walking off the job, the Oceanic workers refused to return until the company met its legal safety obligations and agreed to negotiate an enterprise agreement with them.
According to workers at the company, all Oceanic staff are employed as casuals, despite working 40-70 hours per week. The deckhands were only paid a miserable $13.85 per hour flat rate and none got overtime pay.
The workers said that turnaround times between shifts were frequently less than 10 hours and finishing after midnight, before returning for a 7.45am start, is common. No shifts had meal or rest breaks. One worker even said he worked seven days a week for two-and-a-half months on a cruise operating out of Broome but was only paid for a six-day week. The unions are sure the employer has not been meeting award requirements and compensation for being short paid is one of their central demands.
The safety of crew and passengers has motivated the strike as much as better pay. The workers say that Oceanic's vessels are not properly equipped with fire extinguishers or lifejackets, life-rafts are obstructed and that these and other items of safety equipment are shuffled from one vessel to another to pass inspections.
The workers are particularly concerned about fatigue and understaffing. They are worried about the vessels travelling to Rottnest Island in open waters and carrying more than 200 passengers with only a three-person crew. In the event of an engine room fire, both the engineer and the deckhand would be required to go below to fight it. The skipper would be obliged to remain at the wheel, thus leaving nobody to direct passengers in emergency procedures.
Many workers said that they had agreed to work consecutive 16-hour shifts after being told there would be "no future" for them if they declined.
The skippers are caught between a rock and a hard place. By sailing unsafe vessels they risk their accreditation but if they refuse, they will lose their jobs. The deckhands say they are required to drive cranes without training.
The workers claim that their safety concerns have been met with indifference or outright intimidation. Being casuals, they have little job security. Said one of the deckhands: "Unfortunately when people have gone to do something about it in the past, Tony's always found a way to get them out of the company, to move them on. So this is has been coming for many years but it's just now they we're doing it."
Another Oceanic worker, Trevor Smith, said that DiLatte had told the employees that unless they dropped their unionisation push he'd take on more workers. "You'll all be on 20 hours a week", DiLatte told them.
All the workers confirmed that DiLatte regularly called them "fuckin' dummies" and a number said that they had witnessed him kicking a worker in the head in front of passengers.
DiLatte agreed to negotiations with the unions, but promptly scuttled them by insisting that any agreement could only ratify existing practice. He obviously believed he could starve the workers back to work.
The MUA state branch leadership has promised to support its new members and this decision was ratified at a mass meeting of the membership on November 22.
Following repeated requests from the unions, Worksafe inspected Oceanic Cruises on November 23 and immediately slapped prohibition notices on two vessels.
The Oceanic workers have been pleased to have other MUA members and people from the community support their strike. Said Smith: "Any support is good. Just come down and help us rally for a better workplace."
Speaking to the Oceanic workers' picket line, MUA Western Australian assistant secretary Ian Bray said: "There are many workplaces with conditions as bad as this one. But the point is that these workers have had a gutful and decided to stick up for themselves and join our union."
Turning to the seafarers and wharfies who had come to show their support, Bray added: 'They're part of our family now and we've got to help them win."
On November 25, the dispute was heard by the Industrial Relations Commission, which ordered the parties to negotiate a settlement and prohibited Oceanic from taking on more employees, changing the roster or offering individual agreements in the course of negotiations. The commissioner also issued an interim order compelling Oceanic to pay award rates plus 4%, pay penalty rates after 9.5 hours per shift and 45 hours per week, limit shifts to 12-hour maximums and allow a minimum eight hours rest between shifts.
Commenting on the commissioner's ruling, Bray said: "This is a good outcome. Casual workers with no job security have fought and won. It's a great example of what can be done."
[Sam Wainwright is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia nd the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, December 1, 2004.
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