StarTrack warns strike threatens Covid vaccine deliveries

Australia Post subsidiary warns a looming strike risks delivery of Covid vaccines, live organs for transplant and blood products.

TWU workers vote in favour of a strike against StarTrack. Picture: Supplied

Australia Post subsidiary StarTrack is seeking to stop a 24-hour strike by Transport Workers Union members on Thursday, warning the industrial action threatens the delivery of Covid vaccines, live organs for transplant and blood products.

In an application to the Fair Work Commission, StarTrack has sought to have the strike action terminated or suspended for four months on the grounds it “would endanger the life, personal safety or health, or the welfare of, a part of the population”.

The Transport Workers Union insisted on Monday the delivery of vaccines and medical supplies would be exempted from the strike, accusing StarTrack of “exploiting the Covid crisis” in a bid to block legal industrial action by workers.

The commission has scheduled a hearing for 10am on Wednesday to consider the application.

StarTrack says it delivers a significant number of AstraZeneca vaccines per day, with deliveries concentrated in regional and rural areas of NSW and Queensland.

The company says it is also due to start delivering Moderna vaccines from Monday.

“AstraZeneca and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines must be kept below certain temperatures,” the StarTrack application says.

“Accordingly, the AstraZeneca and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines must be delivered within 12-18 hours in order to ensure they reach their destinations in time to be placed in refrigerators.

“The cartons have a shelf life of approximately 24 hours and have in-built temperature guides. If the cartons reach a certain temperature, all of the vaccine vials in that carton will be voided and are unable to be administered.”

StarTrack delivery trucks. Picture: Supplied

StarTrack says it delivers organs for transplant and “any delay in organs being delivered gives rise to a risk that the live organ will be lost”.

It also delivers medical products and supplies, including medical devices, heart stents and valves, blood products and pathology samples for testing.

“Blood products and pathology samples have a shelf-life and must be delivered promptly or the product/sample will be unusable,” it says.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the union had a long history of taking “responsible industrial action, including the recent Toll strike, which backed up guarantees made to StarTrack that medical supplies and vaccines are, now and always, exempted from strike action”.

“The TWU has provided an undertaking to StarTrack and requested detail as to which yards and workers are involved in the transport of vaccines and medical supplies to ensure those union members do not participate in the strike,” Mr Kaine said.

“StarTrack is taking tips right out of the Qantas playbook, attempting to exploit the cloak of Covid to ramp up outsourcing and prevent workers exercising their rights to lock in guarantees for their job security, pay and conditions.

“This is a contemptible stunt to mislead and intimidate workers from a company which knows full well that vaccines and medical supplies are, and always have been, exempted from any TWU industrial action.”

In its application, StarTrack says the industrial action will impact its ability to run processing facilities in respect of its express and premium businesses, and its ability to distribute parcels through its drivers in the Road Express business.

If parcels cannot be sorted, then they are not able to be delivered to final destinations. If the parcels cannot be driven then this also means they cannot be delivered to final destinations,” it says.

“Furthermore, any carve out requiring employees to identify, isolate and only deliver particular products will impose significant pressure on the workforce as the work required will be logistically challenging and require significant, time-consuming manual intervention which will lead to delays in processing and increase the risk of missing delivery deadlines.

“This means that key packages such as COVID-19 vaccines, organs for transplant, medical supplies and pathology cannot be delivered, including to regional locations.

“Accordingly, the industrial action would endanger the personal safety or health, or the welfare, of part of the population, being those who are reliant on medical supplies including but not limited to those who are not vaccinated or are partially vaccinated against COVID-19.”