Australia’s main waterfront union, the Maritime Union of Australia (a division of the CFMMEU) clearly has a problem with reality, or the meaning of words, or both.
It’s the only explanation that fits the latest round of nonsensical utterances from the union.
The MUA is trying to spin when it says that “co-ordinated national industrial action is neither planned, nor possible”.
Let’s look at the facts.
FACT: the union has been granted Protected Action Orders at Hutchison Sydney and Brisbane, DP World Melbourne, DP World Brisbane, DP World Fremantle, DP World Sydney, and all Patrick terminals (i.e. at Patrick Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle) to carry out industrial action in many forms, including:
- “an unlimited number of bans on the performance of work on any nominated vessel/s or shipping line/s for an indefinite period”; and
- “an unlimited number of bans on the performance of work on vessels that have been sub-contracted to or outsourced”.
FACT: there are stoppages in different States, at different container terminals that have different Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.
FACT: the MUA is authorised to carry out bans on any ships or any shipping lines at nearly all of the major container terminals in Australia.
FACT: the MUA is authorised to prevent its members from working any vessels sub-contracted by stevedores to other stevedores.
FACT: when the union says that coordinated industrial action is not possible, that statement is wrong.
As the union now has the ability to carry out protected industrial action across the Australian waterfront, this situation looks a lot like coordinated national industrial action. Let’s ignore the MUA spin and see this coordinated industrial campaign for exactly what it is: a coordinated industrial campaign.
Medical supplies and foodstuffs
There is another point of nonsense that needs to be addressed.
Claiming that essential goods such as medicines and foodstuffs are exempt from industrial action is ridiculous.
When a container terminal stops it stops.
And that means essential goods will inevitably get caught by the stoppage.
Goods from different suppliers can be sent as a mixed shipment inside a container. So a less-than-container load shipment of medical supplies or foodstuffs might be packed inside a container stuffed with retail goods.
Meanwhile, full containers of vital medical supplies or foodstuffs could be at the bottom, or in the middle, of a stack of containers.
So when the MUA refuses to allow container ships to be unloaded, any purported “exemption” would simply be of no effect because the exempted goods would be buried somewhere in the stacks of containers aboard ship. To get the “exempted” goods off the ship would effectively require the discharge of a large part of the containers aboard the ship… thereby defeating the purpose of the industrial action.
Medical supplies, foodstuffs and other vital goods that are needed by Australian families will inevitably be caught up in any industrial action despite any union spin to the contrary.
