Patrick deal wobbles in Sydney

By Dick Nichols

SYDNEY — The implementation of the deal which ended the dispute between Patrick Stevedores and the Maritime Union of Australia has hit serious snags here.

MUA central NSW branch deputy secretary Jim Donovan has claimed in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that "a lot of things are happening in the enterprise agreement that were never explained and never should have worked out that way".

Chief among Donovan's complaints is the introduction of 12-hour shifts, which he claims were not agreed to in the final settlement. MUA national secretary John Coombs said that it was "nonsense" for Donovan to suggest he did not know what was in the deal.

A reading of the Patrick-MUA terms of settlement would seem to back Coombs' view. Section 5.2 states that in terminals the company has the right to push back the start time of any shift by up to four hours, with notice on the previous day. In general stevedoring, the company has the right to extend a shift by up to four hours.

Patrick is complaining that the wharfies are refusing to work 12-hour shifts or operate machinery with reduced staffing levels. The company is trying to ban Sydney MUA organiser Glen Wood from its sites.

Donovan told the Herald that the wharfies at P&O Ports "are steaming themselves up" over the company's decision to seek the same deal as that won by Patrick. "If they think they are going to come and ask for absolutely identical ... they are going to be in for a rude shock", he said.

Rank-and-file wharfies contacted by Green Left Weekly have confirmed that now that the real nature of the Patrick deal has become clear, after more than a month of working under its terms, wharfies are increasingly angry. This especially applies to non-Patrick sites, where the axe is about to fall on hard-won conditions, even though the stevedoring companies have been making millions.

From GLW issue 337