Photo: Peter Boyle
Waterside workers and supporters rallied outside the Port Botany and Port Brisbane terminals of Hutchison Ports on August 7 in protest at the sudden sacking of 97 employees—57 in Sydney and 40 in Brisbane—the previous night.
“Solidarity is the strongest force in the union movement. We will fight this till we win”, Sydney Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) branch secretary Paul McAleer told those assembled.
A CFMEU delegate added: “Right now, on every building site in NSW, your dispute is being conveyed to the workers. You have our complete support in this important struggle.”
The workers received text messages and emails at midnight telling them they had been made redundant, that there were no redeployment opportunities and that their belongings would be couriered to them.
Other Hutchison workers have walked out in solidarity and were joined by MUA members from other companies and members of other unions.
As we go to press, workers are maintaining their gathering at the Hutchison Ports terminal gates: ships are not being loaded and container trucks are not entering or leaving. Police and security guards, dressed in black and wearing balaclava-style hoods, are guarding the port entrance.
The stand-off is reminiscent of the confrontation between the MUA and guards on the wharves during the historic Patricks dispute, which started in September 1997, only ending in June 1998.
That dispute started when Patricks, backed to the hilt by the then Howard Coalition government, which was intent on destroying the MUA. After a massive struggle, the union won its right to organise, although jobs were lost in the aftermath of the settlement.
In its email to the workers, Hutchison blamed the downsizing of its contracts in Australia as the reason for the sackings. MUA NSW assistant branch secretary Paul Garrett told the ABC on August 7 that the union rejected this claim.
“I was proud to be a female on the wharves and [the redundancy] just destroyed it. I've been here since it was dirt, helped build the place and this is what they do.”
Tony, another sacked worker, told Green Left Weekly: “I left a secure, full-time job to come to Hutchison in March 2014, when the terminal opened. They told me my job was permanent and that I could ‘throw away my resume’.
“They swindled us into taking these jobs, used our labour to set up the facility, and now they have sub-contracted our jobs away. Half the work has been sub-contracted out to other companies here.
“This affects not only my future, but the future of my children and others. We are determined to stay and fight for our jobs,” he said.
At a 500-strong rally, called on August 3 to protest the threat of sackings, MUA assistant national secretary Warren Smith said Hutchison was sub-contracting vessels to Patricks and DP World.
“This is a manipulation and a rort by Hutchison that we will fight to the end.
“Manipulating contracts and colluding with other port operators to manufacture redundancies is just not acceptable. This is a plot to remove union delegates and activists and bring in a disposable, casual, pliable workforce when the contracts mysteriously reappear,” he said.
“Hutchison ought to know that the MUA is not naive and we are gearing up to fight for the long haul.”
Rita Mallia, state president of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Mark Lennon, Unions NSW secretary and Greens MP David Shoebridge also spoke in support of the workers. The rally marched to the entrance of the Hutchison Ports administration building where, to rousing cheers, solidarity messages from other MUA branches and other unions in Australia and internationally were read out.
In Brisbane, more than 40 workers, all MUA members, including every delegate on site, received redundancy notices. When the first roster of non-terminated workers arrived for their shift on Friday they stayed in the lunchroom.
This action was supported outside by a gathering of up to 100 people, including sacked Hutchisons workers, MUA members from other wharves, a contingent of plumbers from a nearby construction site who used their smoko to came down to help out, and representatives of the CFMEU and ETU. A carload of scabs, which arrived under police escort, were turned away.
MUA Queensland branch secretary Bob Carnegie announced to the gathering that Hutchisons management had deemed the action unlawful and had lodged a dispute in the Industrial Court.
The solidarity gathering will operate 24/7. The ETU has provided its well-known picket van providing breakfast and lunch and dinner to those gathering.
The dispute is set to intensify on Sunday morning when a ship is expected to dock at the Hutchison terminal in Port Brisbane. Carnegie has invited community members to join in the solidarity action at the terminal in Curlewis Street, Port of Brisbane.
The MUA is demanding Hutchison release all its restructure plans and that any automation proposals only be implemented by negotiation with the union. It is also demanding that workers be given the right to return to their jobs, and that the company deploy objective and fair redundancy procedures.
[More information from the MUA.]
Photo: Jim McIlroy.
Photos: Peter Boyle
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