BY SUE BOLTON
According to many long-time members of the Maritime Union of Australia, there has never before been such a rebellion from the ranks of the MUA and its forerunners the Seamens Union of Australia and the Waterside Workers Federation as has just occurred in this year's MUA election of national and branch officials.
The fact that as many as 51 candidates stood for 21 positions is an indication of a widespread debate among members of the MUA about the future of their union.
The election, the outcome of which was declared by MUA national returning officer Phil Byrne on June 25, resulted in six full-time officials in the Fremantle, Sydney and Melbourne ports losing office.
One of the scrutineers, Sam Wainwright, noticed that the biggest protest vote came from the section of the membership that had suffered the greatest impact of casualisation wharfies. While seafarers are badly effected by casualisation, the percentage of casual employees on the waterfront has dramatically increased in the four years since the last MUA election.
Eddie King, MUA Rank and File ticket candidate for assistant branch secretary in central NSW, has been a waterside worker for 38 years. He told Green Left Weekly that the huge protest vote shows that "members have finally realised that the people in office just weren't doing their jobs properly".
The most significant outcome of the election is that two state branches Western Australia and Victoria have new leaderships.
In WA, the new branch secretary is Chris Cain and the new assistant branch secretary is Ian Bray both from the MUA Rank and File ticket. However, incumbent Keith McCorriston retained his position as deputy branch secretary.
The opposition ticket in Victoria won all three of the positions it contested. The new officials in Victoria are Kevin Bracken (branch secretary), David Schleibs (deputy branch secretary) and Bob Patchett (assistant branch secretary). The second assistant branch secretary, Dave Cushion, won his position in the 1999 election and his candidature was supported by both the incumbents as well as the opposition ticket.
The June 24 Australian Financial Review, which is written for the owners and managers of big business, was quick to announce that a "shake-up in the leadership of the waterfront union has raised fears that increased militancy may jeopardise crucial reforms of the waterfront". The "reforms" referred to are massive increases in the number of casual jobs at the expense of permanent jobs and work practices which allow jobs to be completed faster but which have dangerous consequences for the health and safety of workers.
As both the WA and Victorian opposition tickets ran on a platform of returning the union to the members by rebuilding membership participation in union decisions, the AFR article indicates that the employers aren't confident that rank-and-file MUA members will willingly go along with further cuts in conditions if they have the opportunity to have more of a say in the running of their union.
The personal history of many of the newly elected officials indicates why the bosses will have cause to worry.
Chris Cain, for example, has been a seafarer for 20 years, working in the offshore oil and gas industry as well as in the blue water (seagoing) section of the industry. For most of this time, he was a union delegate.
When he was working in the offshore industry, he was the convener, working out of the port of Karatha. This meant that he was a delegate on one ship, but involved in the enterprise bargaining negotiations with Woodside Petroleum for nine ships.
While Cain was MUA convener for the north-west shelf oil and gas industry, seafarers working for Woodside won the best wages and conditions in the country in their offshore enterprise bargaining agreements.
Cain, who is also a member of the Socialist Alliance national executive, told Green Left Weekly that his and Ian Bray's first priorities will be to "bring back 100% membership on the waterfront and then, once we've established that, we'll be going to the rank and file to organise committees". He added:
"At the moment, the executive is just the three full-time officials. It won't be that anymore. The rank-and-file will be on that executive and they will be having a say on what goes on.
"Then we'll be going to the membership to elect a port committee, and the port committee will consist of members from Port Hedland, Karatha, Geraldton, Kwinana, Fremantle, Bunbury, Esperance all the areas where our members are in WA will have representatives on that committee."
According to the MUA rule book, the port committee does exist, but it is only required to meet once a year. "We'd like to change that and have it meet more frequently", Cain said.
He confirmed that the new WA leadership will put a big effort into reviving the local delegate structures, local committees and local occupational health and safety committees in each workplace. It will also be looking to revive the practice of a shift delegate being elected at the beginning of each shift. They intend to revive a structure which used to exist the job delegates' association to take control over the direction of the WA branch.
Kevin Bracken told GLW that the new leadership in Victoria has similar plans. He said that he and the other members of his ticket stood in the elections because "we thought that the union had lost touch with the members". He added: "The key thing for us is that the union is the members. It's not the officials. And we want to bring the decision-making process back to the members."
Years ago, job delegates used to meet in Melbourne once a month and there would be a report from all the various work sites about what was going on. "We believe that the people on the job in Melbourne now just think about their own little place of work. We want to make sure they know they're part of something bigger", said Bracken.
Cain explained that one of the pressing issues which has to be taken up is casualisation. "We need to address the hard issues of casualisation", he said. "During this election campaign I met a number of members who've been casual on the waterfront for six, seven, eight, nine years. That equates to a permanent job in anyone's book.
"If the metalworkers can get a decision out of the [industrial relations] commission that six months employment in a job warrants a permanent job, then I'm sure that a person who's been on the job for eight or nine years consistently would warrant a permanent job."
Unlike permanents, casuals receive no sick days, no long service leave and no holiday pay. "Casualisation is a hard issue for us", Cain said, "but it's one that we're prepared to take up and show a leadership role on".
Bracken also believes that "casualisation is the number one scourge in the industry", adding: "It's happening on the ships as well as on the wharves. Some of the seafarers have been on the one ship doing the one job for three years and they're still casual."
Shane Bentley, who was the MUA Rank and File candidate for central NSW branch secretary, is a casual wharfie at P&O's White Bay dock. He believes that many casual wharfies are dissatisfied with the union for "giving up on the fight to create more permanent positions".
Bentley, who received 44% of the votes for the position he stood for, said: "Unlike the permanents who are on a roster, around half of the work force is irregular, which means we only find out if we're working, and on which shift, the afternoon before. It creates havoc for your social and family life. The joke is that the only thing the company guarantees you is a divorce.
"Some people have been in this situation for seven years, strung on in the belief that one day they'd become a permanent.
"The stevedoring companies have created a new category of employment where you're guaranteed a minimum annual wage but with no roster, just like a casual, so you still have no control over your life. Where I work, at White Bay, the union signed an EBA that says there will be no more permanents put on for the life of the agreement. People are sick of being treated like this."
One point which Bracken emphasised as important in rebuilding the union is solidarity. "We want to keep a close association with the other unions, especially the AMWU [Australian Manufacturing Workers Union], the ETU [Electrical Trades Union], the plumbers and the CFMEU [Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union].
"People coming together showing solidarity is a natural thing. It's been legislated against [by the federal government], where you can't take secondary boycotts to help out other unionists, but even if we can't do that we can still support each other."
Cain also views solidarity as key. He saw solidarity in practice during the Patrick dispute in 1998 when hundreds of unionists, in particular construction workers, walked off the job to help the Fremantle wharfies stop scabs crossing the MUA picket line.
"We got so much support from other unionists, unionists who lost money to come and support us", said Cain, "but the MUA hasn't given the same sort of support back to other unionists in struggle. The new leadership of the WA branch intends to repay that solidarity. We intend to support other workers who are having a blue, and we hope they continue to support us when we need that help.
"This solidarity should also extend to other sections of the community who need solidarity, such as refugees."
When asked what he saw as the significance of the election result for the MUA, Cain said: "I know that the shipping companies, the stevedoring companies and the Labor Party are not happy with the result, but they don't pay my wages, and as far as I'm concerned they should be worried. They know that they've got away with a lot of things over the last 12 years and we aim to give back the union to the membership and make it a proud union again."