Union suspends tugboat strike

WEST Australian tugboat workers have backed off from immediate strike action that would have cost the country an estimated $100 million a day.

Employment Minister Eric Abetz. Picture: Kim Eiszele

WEST Australian tugboat workers last night backed off from immediate strike action that would have cost the country an estimated $100 million a day and was shaping up as the biggest test of the Fair Work Act since Qantas grounded its entire fleet three years ago.

Against a backdrop of growing political pressure, the so-called “rogue” WA branch of the Maritime Union of Australia has suspended action for a month to allow negotiations with iron ore miners.

The union announced it would suspend its industrial action against Port Hedland tugboat company Teekay Shipping “in the spirit of continuing fruitful negotiations”.

Iron ore miners and the government had been weighing up attempts to force the suspension of the proposed industrial action.

Fortescue Metals Group, which exports all of its iron ore production through Port Hedland, had earlier declared it was preparing an application under a section of the Fair Work Act on the grounds it was a third party facing significant economic damage.

Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz, who has the power under the act to terminate strike action that threatens significant damage to the economy, welcomed the union’s move but noted the action had not been called off altogether.

He accused the MUA of “holding to ransom” the iron ore miners who used the port and the broader Australian population that benefited from royalties and taxes. “To then prejudice the goose that is laying the golden egg for us would be economic vandalism at its worst, “ he said.

About 50 workers employed at Port Hedland by Teekay Shipping are pushing for a 40 per cent pay increase across four years, as well as increased leave provisions. The workers voted last week to endorse protected industrial action and could have gone on strike in the coming weeks.

The MUA said it would apply to the Fair Work Commission for a 30-day extension to the current industrial action order and renew its right to strike in the event the next month of negotiations were not fruitful.

Senator Abetz indicated the government would examine “shortfalls” in the legislative framework that had emerged during the dispute.

The MUA’s assistant secretary in WA, Will Tracey, is arguing for increased leave for tugboat workers on the basis they work an average of 2016 hours a year, the equivalent of almost 54 weeks of a standard 37.5-hour working week.

“Both industry and the federal government are trying to create the impression that these deckhands work only a fraction of the year, in an attempt to portray the MUA as unreasonable,” he said.

Deidre Willmott, head of the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, described the proposed strike action as “ludicrous”.

“The most frustrating part of this situation is that action will be legal under the Fair Work Act,” she said. “We need urgent legislative reform to ensure that this ongoing behaviour does not seriously damage WA’s reputation as a place to invest.”