BY
SUE BOLTON
On April 14, ballot papers will be posted to all members of the Maritime
Union of Australia for what is likely to be the most significant MUA election
in years, with opposition tickets in most MUA branches, as well as an opposition
ticket for three of the four national officers' positions.
The MUA Rank and File ticket, which originated in Western Australia
during the 1999 MUA election, is contesting all WA branch positions, three
of the four national positions and two positions in the Central NSW branch.
MUA Rank and File candidate for WA branch secretary Chris Cain told
Green Left Weekly that the members gave the incumbent officials
the chance to change things in 1999 when they were returned to office,
and they've delivered on nothing. “Four years later”, says Cain, “we still
have casualisation, we still have seafarers blacklisted, we still have
workers who've been injured through occupational health and safety not
being properly addressed. We still have union officials going off for drinks
with the bosses.
“Basic issues needed to be addressed four years ago and they haven't
been — permanency of employment for wharfies; permanency of employment
for seafarers; and winning back some type of roster system for seafarers,
taking it back out of the bosses' hands.
“When our [seafarers'] roster went, what went with that was the militancy,
because seafarers then became company-employed. The ones who were company-employed
were then terrified to speak up because if they did and their job finished,
they were never picked for a job again.”
Ian Bray, the MUA Rank and File candidate for WA assistant branch secretary
recalls the way in which the seafarers' roster was lost. It was the MUA
national leadership, under the leadership of current national secretary
Paddy Crumlin, which took the initiative to propose the abandonment of
the seafarers' roster. The initiative didn't come from the ship owners,
although they heartily applauded the initiative.
Bray told GLW that the proposal to abandon the roster was made
with great haste and very little input from the members. The proposal was
voted on at a two-day national delegates conference, but it was only reported
back to the monthly stopwork meetings after the decision had been made.
Rank and file members never had a chance to vote to keep the roster, despite
the devastating impact of this decision on seafarers' livelihood.
At the two-day conference to give up the roster, the delegates were
berated with a full day of speeches from the officials in which they painted
a picture of the “death” of the industry. Crumlin told the delegates that
if they didn't give up the roster, the industry would be “gone”. He argued
that if the seafarers agreed to give up the roster, they'd get money from
the government to revive the shipping industry. Almost six years later,
Bray says they're “still waiting for the first cent to arrive from the
federal government”.
When asked if the current MUA officials are using the enterprise bargaining
agreements to try to win back some of the conditions which have been lost,
Bray replied that the incumbent officials are allowing conditions to go
further backwards with each EBA. “If members call for steps to be taken
to restore the seafarers' roster or bring back a common labour pool for
wharfies, the incumbents reply that `The good old days are gone. This is
the new industry. You can't live in the past forever. You can't be a dinosaur.
It's against the law'.”
The experience of the P&O EBA where the MUA officials never had
a perspective of using the EBA to improve conditions on the waterfront
prompted an MUA Rank and File ticket to run for positions in the Central
NSW branch, located in Sydney.
“From the very beginning of the EBA process at P&O, the MUA officials
announced that they would not entertain the idea of industrial action despite
the fact that industrial action is legal during an enterprise bargaining
period. That just signalled to P&O that they could walk all over us”,
said Shane Bentley, MUA Rank and File candidate for Central NSW branch
secretary.
Bentley's running mate, MUA Rank and File candidate for Central NSW
assistant branch secretary Eddie King has worked on the waterfront since
1970 and says he's never seen such a level of dissatisfaction among rank
and file members as exists now.
King's motivation for running in the election was the P&O EBA. As
if things weren't difficult enough for casual wharfies before the agreement,
they are even worse now, he says. Casual wharfies already live at the end
of the phone, having to ring up each afternoon to find out if they are
working the next day. Now, since the P&O EBA for White Bay in Sydney
was rammed through, casual wharfies have to ring up on the day of their
shift as well to find out if they might have to start up to two hours earlier
or later than they were told the day before.
“How can any casual wharfie have children or any kind of life outside
of work when their shifts are so unpredictable? It's not only the casual
wharfies who are affected by the unpredictability”, asks Bentley. “Their
partners also have to put their lives on hold, especially if they have
children, because of the unpredictable hours of work.”
According to Hakan Taulla who is standing as an MUA Rank and File candidate
for assistant national secretary, wharfies in Melbourne can remain casuals
for up to eight years. The other two members of the MUA Rank and File ticket
running for national positions are Roy Atkins for assistant national secretary
and Darryl Crane for the second national assistant secretary position.
Cain explained that the Rank and File ticket is running because “we
want to give the union back to the membership. It is their union, and leaders
are there to be told what to do by the rank and file. But the current officials
believe they own the union election”.
“We're also running on a campaign to bring back an industry roster”,
Cain added. “We want solidarity with other unions. We want casualisation
to stop. We want permanency of employment for every wharfie. We also believe
that we've got to do a hell of a lot in regard to health and safety, because
we believe that if we leave it any longer, there are going to be major
accidents down on the waterfront. We want the job delegates association
working. We want active occupational health and safety delegates down on
the wharves.”
A recent example of the union's lack of consultation is the fact that
the MUA officials have agreed to, or are turning a blind eye to, the introduction
of wharfies employed by labour hire companies at Patrick. According to
MUA Rank and File candidate for WA deputy branch secretary Peter Treacy
who works for Patrick, the MUA officials haven't organised any meetings
of Patrick wharfies to discuss the issue. Already, labour hire workers
are being used by Patrick to deny work to the pre-existing casual workforce.
Some of the casuals at Patrick in Fremantle have worked for the company
for up to six years.
One big problem in the MUA, says Cain, is that the MUA is totally dominated
by the Labor Party. “The MUA gave $100,000 in members' money to the ALP
in the last election without even asking the members. And I particularly
don't support the Labor Party because they're not `labour' in the true
sense of the word.
“Let's look at the Labor Party. There was a big blue down at Westernport
BHP in Victoria and a picket line is set up. [Labor Premier Steve] Bracks
goes and sends coppers in belting workers on the picket line. That's the
Labor Party for you.
“Then look at the Labor Party in Western Australia, [Labor Premier Geoff]
Gallop got elected with the support of the union movement. He's just given
all the government contracts, the building contracts to scab outfits, so
that's the payment for getting him back. I believe it's time for the union
movement to have a serious look at what they want. I'm involved with the
Socialist Alliance. I think it's a good party, and there's room for the
trade union movement in it.”
An important issue in the current MUA election is the need for a fair
and transparent election. “ We believe there were major discrepancies with
the ballot in the 1999 election”, said Cain. “We don't mind the MUA running
its own election, but what we do mind is the way it's run. We want a fair
election.”
The MUA is the only union to run its own elections and there were a
number of problems with the 1999 ballot, including the addition of new
members to the electoral roll during the eight-week voting period, the
printing of 2200 “spare” ballot papers which were kept in the union rooms
and the fact that the national returning officer collected the ballot papers
each day during the eight-week voting period, without the presence of scrutineers.
Although the union and the national returning officer have agreed to
some minor modifications in the election process, the main demand of the
MUA Rank and File ticket — that ballot papers be returned to a locked bag
in the post office which can't be touched by the returning officer until
the day of the count — has not been agreed to by the union.
To contact the MUA Rank and File candidates, ring: Chris Cain 0407 850
084; Ian Bray 0403 325 376; Peter Treacy (08) 9458 2860; Shane Bentley
0419 278 144; Eddie King (02) 9758 2159.
From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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