Further strikes threatened after Patrick shutdown

The dispute between national port terminal operator Patrick and the maritime union has intensified.

Patrick’s Port Botany container terminal in Sydney.

The dispute between national port terminal operator Patrick and the maritime union has intensified, with the MUA threatening more industrial action after today’s strikes, and the stevedores calling on the government to “stand up” to “rogue” unionists.

As 24-hour shutdowns start this morning in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle, threatening the national supply chain, the Maritime Union of Australia warned Patrick it was planning a fresh round of rolling stop­pages at Port Botany this month.

Patrick senior executive Alexandra Badenoch said it was “extrem­ely disappointing” to hear late last week that further action was planned before today’s strikes have played out.

Ms Badenoch said the escalation of industrial action in Port Botany, the gateway to the biggest state economy, was in contrast to the MUA scaling back action in other states, where planned shutdowns were cancelled.

“We feel quite strongly that our employees on the whole are great people who want to get on with (finalising their workplace agreement) — at Melbourne and Brisbane we should be able to reach resolution but rogue elements are undermining the process with a completely unreasonable industrial response and unreasonable requests,’’ Ms Badenoch said.

“From our perspective, it’s a couple of particularly aggressive militants from the Sydney branch who are determined to disrupt the process.”

Ten months of enterprise bargaining negotiations between Patrick and the MUA broke down late last year. The union, which refused yesterday to distance itself from the Sydney branch, said it was fighting for members’ job secur­ity ahead of the mooted sale of Patrick’s stevedoring business to Qube logistics or Brookfield.

The Australian revealed last week that one of the MUA’s nation­al demands is for any future owner of Patrick to keep 100 per cent of its workforce. Ms Badenoch said: “Whether we own the business or someone else does, the same issues will still be there: we need a sustainable workforce.

“We would clearly hope that the government is strong and supportive and aggressive and stands up around some of these issues …

“This is a perfect example of what (Malcolm Turnbull and Employ­ment Minister Michaelia Cash) were talking about with the royal commission report, and union bosses who aren’t acting in their members’ interests.”

The MUA accused Patrick of cancelling “critical meetings”. Deputy national secretary Will Tracey said: “MUA members at Patrick container terminals across the country 100 per cent support their comrades at Port Botany. The action has been escalated after Patrick management cancelled three days of critical meetings … scheduled for this week”.

Senator Cash warned the union yesterday against “irresponsible” and “capricious” industrial action.

The MUA’s Port Botany demands include a 30-32 hour week paid for as a 35-hour week and weekend penalty rates — claims that Patrick estimates will add 53 per cent to its labour costs.

Today’s strikes are the first nat­ional shutdowns at Patrick, which services just under half of the nat­ion’s container imports, since the 1998 waterfront standoff with the company, spurred on by the Howard government.