Hutchison sackings: Lifting picket sign of good faith, says MUA

The MUA and Hutchison Ports Australia have agreed to discuss the future of the company’s Australian operations.

The Maritime Union of Australia’s Paddy Crumlin speaks to striking workers at Hutchinson Ports in Sydney.

The maritime union and Hutchison Ports Australia have agreed to discuss the future of the ­company’s Australian operations after the sacking of almost 100 workers in Sydney and Brisbane.

While the union said that private talks with the company today would “try to find a way through current circumstances”, the ­future looks bleak for the dock workers, who attracted community sympathy when they were sacked by text message and email.

None of the 97 workers sacked has been rostered to work despite a temporary federal court injunction against the sackings granted on Thursday.

The union has removed its picket line and lifted blockades to let workers not made redundant return to duties, which it said yesterday was a “show of good faith”.

The Australian understands the sacked workers have been told to maintain the “community assembly” on the sidelines at the ports, which one wharfie des­cribed as “demoralising”.

“The MUA wants a return to normal operations. Workers have returned in Sydney and Brisbane under difficult circumstances as a gesture of good faith,” maritime union nat­ional secretary Paddy Crumlin said yesterday.

The company has been at pains to emphasise the losses ­incurred by its Australian business since its launch in 2013, which it put at $40 million a year.

It has said there is not enough business for its workforce of 224.

The union and the company are expected to report on the outcome of the talks to Fair Work Commission deputy president Anna Booth on Thursday.