WORKPLACE SAFETY
BEDSIDE VIGIL
Workmates help their mate pull through after near death shuttle collision due to unsafe work conditions at Hutchison’s Port Botany
W
aterside worker Kim Grunsell, 55, was hurled more than nine metres from her shuttle onto the concrete below after a collision with another shuttle at Hutchison, Port Botany on 19 April. It was touch and go whether she would pull through. “I was there when it happened,” said workmate and best mate Jodie Dale. “I heard the call and got down from my crane. I was on the ground with Kim.” Jodie, an ex-police officer, has seen a lot of serious injuries. “But it’s a hell of a lot different when it’s your mate,” she said. “Kim was conscious for a bit. She said ‘Don’t leave me’.” Jodie didn’t leave Kim. She stayed the night at the hospital in the Intensive Care Unit and tracked down Kim’s mum Beth. “I didn’t come home for a couple of days. My husband took holiday leave so he could look after our two little kids,” she said. Sometimes there were as many as 20 of her mates by Kim’s bedside each day until nurses reminded them it was intensive care. Kim was on life support in an induced coma for a month before regaining consciousness. “Kim had catastrophic injuries,” said Paul Keating, deputy branch secretary Sydney. “She was on the operating table for 17 hours undergoing brain surgery. That first week we had no news but no news was good news. It meant she was still alive.”
NO ACCIDENT
The collision was no accident, it was a disaster waiting to happen. The day after the near fatality, Hutchison Ports bosses tried to force workers straight back working in unsafe conditions. Management refused to let union officials on site, forcing them to address workers through a barbed wire fence.
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The smashed shuttle carrier, in which Kim was almost killed, was left standing in full-view in the middle of the yard, despite repeated requests to shift it. Traumatised workers said they would not operate the shuttles until health and safety concerns were addressed. This was their right under both Work Health and Safety legislation and the enterprise agreement. But management accused the workers of ‘unlawful’ industrial action. “Worse, Hutchison was attempting to force workers, using intimidation and legal threats, to resume unsafe traffic operations, even though nothing has changed since the incident that left one member in hospital fighting for her life,” safety officer Matt Goodwin said. “Fellow workers at Port Botany, also traumatised and in fear for their lives, refused to undertake vehicle operations in the terminal until immediate safety issues were addressed,” he said. “The terminal was grounded for 13 days. Vessels were diverted to the Patrick terminal as investigations got under way. It was not until SafeWork NSW issued improvement notices warning of serious risks to the workforce that talks began. The Fair Work Commission issued contradictory interim orders. Workers were to operate shuttles as directed but at the same time the Commission acknowledged workers’ rights to stop work if there was a risk. On 29 May MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Paul McAleer led a march of several hundred workers through the Sydney CBD
from the Town Hall to the Fair Work Commission demanding the right to strike. The Port Botany wharves were closed for the morning. “Industrial laws are stacked against workers and union in favour of corporations and bosses,” the leaflet calling for the rally announced. “Unions that exercise their right to strike face massive fines and law suits.” The near fatality at Port Botany is the latest case in a pattern of serious health and safety incidents in Hutchison terminals. In the past 18 months in the Asia-Pacific region alone, four workers were killed at Hutchison’s JICT Terminal in Jakarta. The Indonesian union was among the first to send solidarity messages to Kim and her workmates. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) launched a campaign to improve Hutchison’s global health and safety operations.
www.mua.org.au
