Patrick sacks MUA militant

By Robert Darcy

SYDNEY -- On November 2 Glen Wood was sacked from Patrick Stevedores at Port Botany after reportedly refusing a supervisor's order to drive a straddle truck.

Wood was previously an organiser for the Central NSW branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). He had already received two disciplinary warnings after returning to his job in July after four years' leave of absence as a full-time MUA official.

Wood plans to lodge an unfair dismissal claim but fears it will be five months before a hearing. He said workers had not gone on strike to support him because the Coalition government's anti-union laws made such action illegal.

Wood was quoted in the November 5 Sydney Morning Herald: “These new laws have stopped all those things and if any of them did go out Patrick would sack them as well and I don't want to be the cause of that”.

Wood said he was in the canteen on November 2 when a supervisor told him to drive a straddle truck. He said he would comply only if the supervisor followed past procedure by having a team leader direct him.

Manager Don Hughes asked Wood if he was disobeying a supervisor. Wood still declined to work as directed and was dismissed. Wood was on notice that a third disciplinary warning could result in dismissal. Management rejected Wood's claim that he was entitled to receive orders only from a team leader.

The Sydney Morning Herald article described the sacking as “evidence that Patrick stevedores has won its battle for dominance over the Maritime Union of Australia”. Wood's sacking follows the sacking of Phil Toby at Port Botany in September.

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