Maritime Union of Australia strikers ‘bullied’ off MV Portland

Crew were pulled from the MV Portland in an after-dark raid, ending a 60-day industrial standoff over shipping rules.

SECURITY guards have removed the union crew of a stranded ship ending a long-running industrial dispute at the Port of Portland. About 1am witnesses say up to 30 security guards boarded the MV Portland which has been blocking a lucrative berth in the port since November. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has been in dispute with the ship's operator Alcoa because the company wanted to make the 38 crew members redundant after the final voyage to Singapore. For years the cargo ship has brought minerals from WA to Alcoa’s Portland smelter, but the union says it is being replaced by a foreign ship crewed with workers paid as little as $2 an hour. The union — which is currently in merger talks with the CFMEU - had ordered its members not to embark on the final voyage, and to leave it at anchor in Portland. But a union source told the Herald Sun the ship is now on its way back to Singapore with a foreign crew after the local workers were removed

A new crisis has deepened the Turnbull government’s election-year battle with the union movement after five crew were pulled from the MV Portland in an after-dark raid, ending a 60-day industrial standoff over coastal shipping rules.

It was past midnight on Tuesday when aluminium giant Alcoa moved to bust the strike, with up to 30 security personnel removing the Maritime Union of Australia crew members and replacing them with foreign crew — an ­action that freed the vessel to sail to Singapore after being held hostage in the Port of Portland for two months.

The midnight security operation by Alcoa — which successfully obtained in October a temporary licence to use foreign-flagged vessels for the shipping of alumina powder from Western Australia — was condemned by the MUA as “worse” than the tactics used by the Patrick Corporation in the bitter 1998 waterfront dispute.

“It is a similar operation really: clandestine, a form of bullying and harassment, designed to intimidate, meticulously planned,” said MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin. “The difference is these seafarers were in their beds at 1.30am, dragged out in the middle of the night and thrown off the ship.”

The MUA’s conduct has been slammed as illegal after it appeared to openly defy orders from both the Federal Court and the Fair Work Commission to cease its industrial action and allow the vessel to sail.

Claiming a technicality was preventing the ship’s departure, the MUA instead continued to use the impasse to push Alcoa to cancel its temporary licence and return to using an Australian flagged vessel and crew.

Bill Shorten yesterday said he was “deeply disturbed” to see Australian seafarers marched off ships and replaced with foreign workers, saying it was a case of “Work Choices on water. If nothing else, a government in Australia should stand up for Australian jobs.”

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus yesterday called on Malcolm Turnbull to “immediately withdraw the temporary licence” and allow Australians to keep their jobs.

Mr Dreyfus argued that by proceeding with its temporary licence, Alcoa was contravening the spirit of existing coastal shipping laws and ignoring the Senate’s rejection of the government’s attempt to replace them in late November.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash told The Australian the MUA’s stance over the past two months had compromised the integrity of the entire Fair Work ­regime and showed the workplace system was flawed.

She hopes to use the dispute to strengthen her hand in securing passage of measures to improve union governance following the damning findings and 79 recommendations of the Heydon royal commission into trade union ­corruption.

“Once a decision is made by the Fair Work Commission or the courts, it is incumbent on all parties to respect the decision — win or lose,” she said.

“It is not for industrial parties to pick and choose which orders of the commission they will comply with. If the obligation to follow orders of the independent umpire is only seen as optional, then the ­integrity of the entire Fair Work system is put at risk.”

The stoush deepens the political clash over unions ahead of this year’s election, with Labor using the dispute to try to marshal support against the reintroduction of the government’s changes to coastal shipping rules, which would exempt more foreign vessels from paying local wages.

The legislation is already under threat from the Senate crossbench.