ON THE WATERFRONT
Po et ry fr om the
Another day down and deeper in debt On the picket line with no regret It’s a daily struggle with a united plight It has brought us all together and we will win this fight! Back in the gates the jobs half done It won’t be over till the donks are gone! - anonymous
A
n unnamed wharfie spent cold winter nights on the picket line – 78 days that lasted into the Fremantle Spring. It was an arduous struggle that separated families and friends. But one that inspired solidarity from comrade unions at home and abroad. Tuggies in Fremantle, Kwinana, Melbourne and Mackay gave from their rolling funds, waterside workers at the terminals dug deep, vets shared their pensions, crew on 20 ships and tankers chipped in. Dave Noonan, CFMMEU acting national secretary at the time, alone raised $60,000 for the struggle from construction division branches. Everyone who could lend a hand did. “I would visit the picket almost every day, or night or both. I’d join my comrades at 5am, duck home at 7am to wake the kids and get them off the school then go and do some causal office work, or on the weekend, wash dishes and make pizza. Sometimes we’d have special days like a burger cook up, family day, taco night, AFL final picket brisket breakfast. Picketers would bring their dogs, kids, parents, brothers, sisters, friends,” one MUA member wrote to Maritime Workers’ First magazine. Global unions weighed in. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union stopped ships in the sister port of Tacoma and LA. Federal Workplace Relations Minister Cash swung in behind the bosses and the dispute went to arbitration. The battle was finally won when
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Qub e wor kers wer e dete rmi ned to figh t for thei r righ ts. With solid arit y at hom e and abro ad they won – and they sun g abou t it
the 120 workers at Qube Fremantle, locked in a new enterprise agreement on November 9. It included 14 new permanent jobs, 10% pay rises – 5% upfront and 5% over two years – and massively enhanced safety/fatigue clauses as well as restrictions on use of labour hire. The Qube protected action was the longest ever recorded in the union’s history.
HISTORY OF A DISPUTE
It began on July 30, when after months of futile negotiations, workers took protected action as is their legal right. “QUBE is the corporate bastard child of Chris Corrigan, who headed Patrick in the infamous dispute of 1998. Corrigan conspired with the Howard Federal Government to try and destroy the MUA. While he is long retired, anti-worker and anti-union venom still flows through the veins of QUBE bosses,” the South Australia branch proclaim on their walls commemorating QUBE as a key victory for all in 150 years of maritime unionism. “After 12 months of listening to QUBE’s HR bosses garble about why they can’t agree to a single bargaining claim in the negotiation of a new QUBE Fremantle EBA, our members had enough,” said Branch Secretary Will Tracey. “121 QUBE members in Fremantle voted 100% in favour of protected action…all voted YES to every question – an unbelievable turnout.” At issue was not money, but safety and fatigue. One in three Qube workers in Fremantle had been on workers’ compensation. Workers only had last minute notice what shift they would be clocking on the next day. Many were required to work excessive and consecutive hours and shifts without a break.
Not one worker at Qube in Fremantle had a roster. Even permanent workers were told by text which shift they were working the night before, Tracey said. Qube workers wanted the company to give notice by 2pm each day on whether they were working the following day. Not 4pm. “I’ve done 10 years working day by day, never knowing when you have a day off to enjoy with family until 4pm,” one worker wrote. “At 2pm you can make a dentist appointment (or cancel one), you can organise yourself for the following day before the kids finish school.” Workers needed to have a work/life balance, Tracey told the local media. They needed to know if they could be there for their kids and mates. Casuals needed time to look for other work if none was available at Qube. To add insult to injury the company brought in scab labour to work the ships while the workers were out the gate. Tracey went on local media highlighting how Qube contracted workers from outside the industry with no MSIC security clearance and little skills. The non-union workers wore no face masks on the job in close proximity to foreign seafarers in breach of exposedon-board workers’ directions. Some cargo they worked, they damaged and took twice as long. The International Transport Workers’ Federation Dockers section and the International Dockers Council backed the Fremantle workers on the ground. Qube faced losing its largest customers Wallenius Wilhelmsen and K Line to its competitor, after the lines avoided disruptions and bypassed the port. Willie Adams, ILWU President saluted the mighty men and women out on strike for standing tall. www.mua.org.au
