BY REBECCA MECKELBURG

BRISBANE — The bitter industrial dispute in May over the use of underpaid, non-unionised labour on the CSL Yarra was reignited when the re-flagged ship, now called the Stadacona, returned to Australian waters.

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) held a 200-strong community picket at Fisherman Islands on June 30 to protest the corporate trickery of shipping company CSL Pacific.

In a previously negotiated “peace deal”, CSL had agreed that the CSL Yarra would not operate in Australian waters again.

The federal government was complicit in this deceit as it provided the renamed ship with a single voyage permit which allows it to move from port to port on an ad-hoc basis. The decision to allow these permits enables the ship to again operate as an Australian cargo ship with underpaid, non-unionised labour.

MUA Queensland secretary Mick Carr made it clear the union had no objections to workers from other countries crewing ships that used Australian ports, as long as they received the same wages and conditions and have the right to join the MUA.

From Green Left Weekly, July 17, 2002.
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