MUA moves closer to second round of Patrick Port Botany strikes

The militant maritime union has moved closer to launching a second round of strikes at Patrick’s Port Botany terminals.

Patrick executive Alex Badenoch pictured at Patricks in Port Botany.

The militant maritime union has moved closer to launching a second round of strikes at Patrick’s Port Botany terminals, after the industrial umpire granted a rare appeal against the Stevedores.

In a Full Bench decision today, the Fair Work Commission quashed a January 22 order by the tribunal’s vice-president Graeme Watson, that prohibited Maritime Union of Australia industrial action against Patrick for 35 days.

The MUA shut down Patrick ports in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Fremantle, which unload 40 per cent of Australia’s containers, for 24 hours last month.

The union planned further action at Port Botany before Patrick petitioned the Fair Work Commission for a suspension, or “cooling off”, order.

Patrick told a hearing before Vice President Watson that it could not continue negotiations over its workforce’s hotly contested enterprise agreement during a strike.

But the union successfully argued that Vice President Watson’s decision was wrong.

“It is clear that such discussions … were to proceed irrespective of the continuation of the protected industrial action,” the Full Bench decision published today stated.

Another hearing before the Full Bench begins tomorrow.

The MUA said it was “looking forward to the Fair Work Commission rehearing the company’s application to suspend industrial action”.

“The original protected industrial action stoppage was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Patrick workforce and that should be respected.”

Ten months of negotiations over the wharfies’ enterprise bargaining agreement ground to a halt late last year, with the union demanding the company enshrine “job security” in its enterprise bargaining agreement ahead of a potential sale of the stevedoring business by Patrick parent company Asciano.

However Patrick has branded the union’s log of claims “unrealistic” and “unsustainable” — including debate over a 30 hour week.

Bad blood has existed between the MUA‘s Sydney branch and Patrick’s Port Botany management since 2012 EBA talk.

There is lingering anger over Patrick’s announcement of further job losses from automation at Port Botany a mere month after finalising EBA negotiations with the union.

Senior Patrick executive Alexandra Badenoch told The Australian last month the company would use the cooling off period to communicate “directly” with its workforce.

Patrick has been contacted for comment on today’s decision.