BY SHANE BENTLEY
SYDNEY Members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) are again protesting against shipping company attempts to reflag Australian crewed and flagged ships as "flag of convenience" vessels with exploited Third World crews.
The OOCL Australia, which was due in the port of Brisbane on July 26, has sailed to Taiwan. The vessel's Brisbane-bound cargo is still on board. The 34 Australian crew members will be paid off and repatriated.
The OOCL Australia is part of the Australian National Line (ANL), a subsidiary of the French CMA-CGM company. The federal Coalition government sold state-owned ANL to CMA-CGM and the Canadian Steamship Lines (CSL) in the mid-1990s.
The OOCL Australia is the last Australian-registered container vessel. ANL reneged on a deal to discuss its plans to reflag the ship with maritime unions. The maritime unions went to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on July 31 to seek an order that ANL continue to employ the ship's crew.
The five crew members of the ANL Bass Trader kept the ship in port from July 26 with a hunger strike in protest at the company's antics. The ANL Bass Trader and the OOCL Australia are the only two ships of the ANL fleet not sailing under a flag of convenience.
The hunger strike was called off on July 29 and the Bass Trader ship set sail after an agreement was reached that there would be no loss of jobs through the withdrawal of the OOCL Australia, and that no legal action would be taken against the protesting crew. ANL has pledged to continue to work with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and maritime unions to develop a coastal container service.
CSL, the owner of another former ANL vessel, the CSL Yarra, have taken maritime unions, the Australian Workers Union and ACTU president Sharan Burrow to the Federal Court. CSL is seeking injunctions and damages against union attempts to prevent CSL ships trading in Australia. That matter will be heard on August 27.
The CSL Yarra was at the centre of a 16-day dispute last month in Port Pirie, South Australia, that ended in an ACTU-brokered deal on May 16. CSL had attempted to sack its Australian crew in preparation for being reflagged overseas. The deal allowed the CSL Yarra to resume cement shipments for six weeks with its original crew until it sailed overseas.
The CSL Yarra returned soon after to ship cargo from Gladstone to Brisbane under a flag of convenience and with a new name, CSL Stadacona. The company claimed that the CSL Stadacona was intended mainly for international trade.
Federal Labor MPs have pledged to introduce legislation to ensure that Australian awards continue to apply after an Australian vessel is reflagged and its Australian crew replaced with a foreign crew. But this vessel continues to operate within, as before, Australia's coastal trade.
From Green Left Weekly, August 7, 2002.
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