Shipping Australia

Advocating Shipping Policy, Sustainability & Safety

We Know Shipping. The major focus of Shipping Australia, as a peak industry body, is both to promote and advance the interests of shipowners and shipping agents in all matters of shipping policy, environmentally sustainable practices and safe ship operations.
  • Policy Council Login
  • Home
  • News & Info
    • Media Releases
    • Events
    • Magazines
    • Photo Gallery
    • Publications
    • Membership
    • Members’ Area
      • Login
    • Factsheets
      • Current Factsheets
      • Fact Sheets 1991 to 1999
    • Industry Links
    • Maritime History
  • Covid-19
  • Courses & Careers
    • On-line Courses
      • Introduction to Shipping
      • Chain of Responsibility
      • Fundamentals of the Maritime Industry
      • Reefer Cargo Handling
    • Courses
    • Careers In Shipping
    • Education
    • Job Vacancies
  • About SAL
    • List of Full Members
    • List of Associate Members
    • Role of SAL
    • Board of Directors
    • Policy Council
    • Steering Groups (National)
    • Committees (State)
    • Young Shipping Australia (YSA)
      • YSA – New South Wales
      • YSA – Victoria
    • Policies
  • Liner Shipping
    • Celebrating the shipping container that changed the world – 50 years of international container shipping for Australia
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
  • FAQ
    • Standards on Empty Shipping Container Inspection (v2 document, May 2021)
    • Container Hire and Late Return/Detention Charges
    • Food Quality Containers
    • Terminal Access Charges – who should pay?

Christmas-crippling strikes announced by the waterfront union

October 26, 2021 by Shipping Australia

Your Christmas has been cancelled by the MUA because the union that represents wharfies, who are paid 105% more than other Australians for doing 23% fewer days of work, is demanding better terms and conditions.

Early in the evening yesterday*, the shipping and trade industries were stunned by news of a sweeping range of aggressive strikes by the Maritime Union of Australia. A series of rolling 12 hour strikes are due every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the first two weeks of November.

There are also a sweeping range of other bans. These include numerous stoppages of one hour, of four hours, and of eight hours. Also banned is overtime, shift extensions, working on subcontracted ships, and employees attending work when rostered as “off/avail”. There are also bans on the performance of work for upgrades.

And this in the run-up to Christmas!

The purpose, of course, is to cause as much disruption as possible. Container terminals are the vital freight interface between land and sea and, of course, all containers flow through them. Disruption at the main capital city container terminals causes disruption for ships, ports, warehousing, trucking, rail and logistics of all kinds. For the everyday consumer it means there will be disruption to the stock that retailers want to put on their shelves for Australians to buy. So its no exaggeration to say that strikes of this magnitude, at this time of year could disrupt your Christmas.

On the ocean shipping side, industrial action like this causes delay. The current industrial action is causing delays of between one to eight days. The exact length of delay varies by location.

The costs to the ocean shipping companies – which are third parties – are immense. The current cost of one-day sailing cost of a 4,000 TEU to 5,000 TEU ship (a size that frequently calls in Australian ports) is currently about AUD$232,500 a day!**

A good deal

Patrick Terminals is, indeed, offering a very good deal to its workforce.

Patrick has offered the following to the MUA over the past 12 months:

  • 2.5% year on year increase for four years
  • Guaranteed job security with no forced redundancies
  • Commitment to preserving jobs with a focus on permanent roles
  • Caps on usage of casual labour

It’s great offer on top of an already fantastic set of conditions:

Days worked per yearPay
(includes bonuses, overtime)
Sydney198$172,124
Melbourne162$151,048
Brisbane173$153,880
Fremantle 181 $166,464
Wharfie average179$160,879
Australian adult worker (e.g. an office worker) median income from employment 233 $50,861*
Percent difference between the typical wharfie and the average Australian adult workerTypical wharfie
works 26% fewer days than other Australians

Average wharfie is
paid 104% more than other Australians

Source:
stevedore working days and pay data – Patrick Terminals; Australian Bureau of Statistics for the median salary. Note: office worker days of work calculated as follows: (((5×52)-7)-20)) where seven days is the number of public holidays and 20 days is an amount of annual leave. The final row is percent difference and is not percent increase.
Percent difference is calculated as (((value 1-value 2) / ((v1+v2)/2)) x100).

Patrick has been negotiating with the MUA since February last year and has held more than 70 meetings in search of a new enterprise agreement. The MUA has launched in excess of 220 industrial action notifications against Patrick Terminals during the negotiation period.

Michael Jovicic, CEO Patrick Terminals said, “We have requested on multiple occasions that the MUA bargain without continuing their economically damaging industrial action. Now issuing 19 new industrial notifications of rolling 12-hour strike actions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the coming fortnight at our already struggling Melbourne terminal is frankly bewildering. Our terminal is still working to recover from reduced labour availability due to recent COVID-19 cases and this industrial action will result in significant delays. Every Australian will feel the impact on the retail shelves across the next two months due to this selfish behaviour”.

Shipping Australia CEO Melwyn Noronha added: “Borders are opening, there’s a bit of optimism in the air and people are looking forward to Christmas and yet, once again, the unions are intervening to wreck the holidays for Australians in pursuit of its own selfish agenda. This is not about workers’ rights; wharfies are very highly paid and they get far more leave than most workers. Australia is plagued with ongoing industrial action. It seems that as soon as one stops, another starts.

“Ultimately, this hurts the Australian economy, which means it hurts everyday Australians. It’s about time that there is a sustainable solution to these frequent, repeated and ongoing disputes on the waterfront. There needs to be some controls so that waterfront disputes are sensibly resolved in a speedy timeframe,” said Shipping Australia CEO, Melwyn Noronha.

Further reading:

Ruined Christmas Day? Blame the MUA!

* Monday 25 October, 2021
** The one-day cost is calculated from publicly available figures. The underlying data changes frequently. Figure is current as of 22 October 2021.

Filed Under: Media Releases, Members, Policy Council Tagged With: 2021, Container terminals, Industrial action, protected industrial action, Strikes

Sign up to our Signal Newsletter

By clicking subscribe you agree to our privacy policy and to receive our email correspondence from which you may unsubscribe at any time

Subscribe

Subscribe to Sal Magazine

Become a Shipping Australia Member

Shipping Australia Ltd provides professional support to its members through promoting member interests. Membership is open to all ship owners, operators and agents both Australian and International providing services to or within Australia.

Become a Member

Accepted Payment Methods

Shipping Australia Full Members

  • A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S
  • Asiaworld Shipping Services Pty Ltd
  • Austral Asia Line Pte Ltd
  • BBC Chartering
  • CMA CGM Group Agencies (Australia & New Zealand) Pty Ltd
  • Engage Marine
  • Evergreen Marine Australia Pty Ltd
  • Gulf Agency Company (Australia) Pty Ltd
  • Hamburg Sud Australia Pty Ltd
  • Hapag-Lloyd Australia Pty Ltd
  • HMM Australia Pty Ltd
  • Inchcape Shipping Services
  • K Line (Australia) Pty Ltd
  • LBH Australia Pty Ltd
  • Leeward Group
  • Mediterranean Shipping Co (Aust) Pty Ltd
  • MOL Shipping Australia PTY LTD
  • Monson Agencies Australia Pty Ltd
  • Neptune Pacific Agency Australia P/L
  • NYK Australia Pty Ltd
  • Ocean Network Express (Australia) Pty Ltd
  • Oldendorff Carriers
  • OOCL (Australia) Pty Ltd
  • Pacific Asia Express Pty Ltd
  • Seaway Agencies Pty Ltd
  • Ship Agency Services Pty Ltd
  • Svitzer Australia Pty Ltd
  • Swire Shipping Pte. Ltd
  • Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean AS
  • Wilhelmsen Ships Service

View All

Copyright © 2022 · Shipping Australia · Site by Love Communications

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use