they are also seeking to rip apart members rosters and wanting reduced earnings for all employment categories. We are up against an employer that is trying to reduce wages and conditions by over 30%, remove key job security protections by allowing the replacement of DP World workers with contractors and refusing to lock in key work life balance provisions that protect rosters and hours of work. Our members are united and are having a red-hot crack at the protected action with all shift lengths reduced to 6 hours, vessels coming alongside not being discharged for 8 hours, upgrade bans on day shifts, and overtime and extension bans applying 24/7. This has been mixed up with various R&D bans and 48-hour work stoppages.
This year also saw the finalisation of the Svitzer agreement which came at the end of a long and drawn out 4-year battle against this global towage company to ensure our membership retained what they had fought for over many years. It was only the ability of our members to come together collectively and stand united in the face of one of the toughest anti-union campaigns in recent memory that got our guys to the finishing line on the agreement earlier this year. It should never be forgotten what Svitzer threw at our membership in their attempts to strip back hard-won terms and conditions of employment that had been fought for over many generations of seafarers. Standing together is not just about winning a good agreement but can also be the only defence of stopping the decimation of our wages and conditions. We campaigned through a lengthy legal battle, lengthy bouts of stop start industrial action under restrictive legislation and mounted an international campaign of support through their parent company Maersk. All of this was set against extreme provocation from Svitzer. This company had a shot at cancelling our EA to put us back on the Award, tried to lock the entire Australian workforce out prior to Christmas last year and then had a dip at trying to arbitrate the agreement to again strip away wages and conditions. We fought as one to oppose the current agreement getting up – however any of the hardline strategies Svitzer employed would have resulted in a far inferior outcome had they been successful. And although our members stood together to oppose the current agreement, the officers and engineers split and voted it up and time will be the judge of how much damage this will do us. Already we have seen Svitzer attack the IR classification in key ports, knock us out of the interview process and we wait to see what they do with the POP’s after the 12 months is up. The CEO who ran the hostile Svitzer campaign attacking his own workforce quit Svitzer after destroying that company’s brand with the clients, government and workforce and has taken up residence at DP World. He has started at DP World where he left off at Svitzer and we see them run from the same playbook in attacking the rosters, wages, and conditions of employment of our members there. And again, our members are up to the task to stand and fight collectively for their new agreement despite the attacks from this employer. At the time of writing this report, DPW members in Fremantle and in all national DPW terminals are into their 8th week of Protected Industrial Action, in response to DPW’s failure to agree to fundamental bargaining claims. DPW have not only refused to agree to industry standards on key claims such as remuneration, but
For many years there has been sporadic work across the dredging industry, and it is only this year that we have been able to work through our newly elected National Dredging Advisory Group to set new standards in the dredging industry and regain a heap of the conditions that were taken from us in recent years. The wage outcomes have been massive with nearly 18% in the first year and 24% over the life of the agreement. The National Dredging Advisory Group is made up of rank-and-file members who meet with our officials with responsibility for the dredging industry to determine the direction and strategy for the Union on the national Dredging industry agreement. They bring the collective position of our members and what they are willing to do to secure the best dredging industry wages and conditions again across this industry.
endorsement. The entire Qube workforce across the country has agreed on a collective campaign to produce an outcome for all Qube workers across all ports.
We are now in the process of organising to meet with Qube to commence discussions and the process toward the new agreement, although Qube are dragging their feet which should come as no surprise. While they do that, we continue to prosecute Qube in the courts for wilful breaches of the agreement with some 16 cases already in play and another 13 lined up behind them. The first conviction was recorded against Qube at the end of November with a penalty of $1,000 and the 2nd was recorded in the first week of December with a penalty of $11,300”…and there are plenty more. The Qube campaign has a strategy developed by Qube Delegates and Officials and fully endorsed by Qube Rank-and-File Members that will see Qube workers across the country finally get the dignity and respect they deserve. Collective strength and organisation at its best. This year saw the collective strength of our Broome Port membership deliver the best Port Authority agreement outcome we have seen in some time across the WA Port Authorities. Their willingness to come together, notify and commence a campaign of protected action came off the back of a 100% vote in the protected action ballot. There is no better outcome in an EA campaign than to have the membership vote 100% in favour of taking action. It sends the strongest possible message that the membership is united as one behind their claims and their campaign. To follow the 100% vote in the ballot with an immediate move to action got the results from a CEO who had been F**king about right up until that point. The result was landed within 3 days of action beginning because the ballot result and immediate move to action displayed a level of intent and commitment by our members to the outcome that the Broome Port could not ignore.
We have now been thrown into Fair Work for a week to see if any progress can be made in that forum but the company we are dealing with is being run by ideologues and it is unlikely we will find any solutions there.
Our members at Patrick’s are finally enjoying some of the benefits of their collective struggle last year with decent pay uplifts coming this year off the back of the insertion of the first CPI outcome with a major Australian stevedore. The Patrick’s members picked up 4% in January 2022, 7.3% in January this year and will get another 5.4% in January 2024. These wage increases are a major claim in the DP World negotiations as Patrick members will be 17% ahead of Patricks by January 2024. The outcomes through their collective struggle inform the DP World campaign and will help set a new industry standard for MUA members across the Australian container terminal industry. The fight at Qube for a new agreement is gaining momentum as we prepare for the expiry of the agreement next June 2024. This campaign was planned and strategised in May this year at the Qube National Delegates Conference held in Fremantle, with the ground campaign kicking off in July through a series of stop work meetings at all Qube sites around the country. Over 4 months the national negotiating team held meetings in 16 ports across the country with every meeting of Qube rank-and-file MUA members debating and endorsing the national strategy and plan, as well as the national log of claims for the new Qube agreement. This is a rank-and-file campaign driven by collective decision making and
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