Bounty Hunt

Texan multi-national trades off safety in offshore industry for a quick buck, by ditching marine labour for workers on individual contracts

Chief IR Paul Wright has been 32 years a seafarer, nine years on the Panamanian flagged floater Ocean Bounty. During this time he has weathered two cyclones (Tracy and Bobby) and countless storms. So when the Texas-based multinational Diamond Offshore Drilling announced they were doing away with their marine crew in favour of roustabouts on individual contracts, Paul's concerns were for the safety of the crew and the vessel, not for himself.

Yet another bastard company was taking advantage of the new IR regime to do away with unionised labour and pocket another million while putting lives at risk.

"The marine crew are needed around the clock, not just when we're on the move," said Paul. "They say they'll save $1 million a year doing away with us, but they'll lose that in a few days if there's a problem and it's off charter. We just evacuated the vessel last swing during a hurricane warning. They left 16 of us hanging out there out of Darwin."

Paul and his shipmates are employed under a collective agreement with Total Marine, who in turn have been contracted to supply the vessel its marine crew. Until now.

On April 3 Australian Mines and Metals Association, an umbrella group representing Diamond Offshore and others, announced the marine crew was going and roustabouts on individual contracts would take their place.

As there is a labour shortage in the offshore industry, no seafarer will go without a job. For now. But the union is concerned the outcome of this dispute could affect the whole offshore industry.

At a meeting with AMMA, branch officials asked if the MUA seafarers would be able to apply for the new jobs.

The answer was yes, but it was doubtful they'd get them and they'd have to sign individual contracts if they did.

Would Diamond commit to employ Australian workers? No. Crew often followed rigs around the world.

"We've had New Zealand workers on $14 an hour," said Paul. "You can get bodgie AB tickets in the Marshall Islands -- FoC tickets. So-called ABs and all they've done is four days training."

The Ocean Bounty is chartered at US$100,000 a day drilling in the Timor Sea and off the Northwest Shelf. As a floater it has always relied on having a marine crew on board, skilled IRs who can up anchors at a moment's notice in cyclone-prone waters and drive the 1500LP winches powering the 164,000-foot chain anchors needed to keep the rig steady in heavy seas at 1,300 foot a minute.

"The removal of an experienced crew on something as massive as the Ocean Bounty, with around 100 people on board, working in a hostile environment prone to cyclone is something most companies would never consider," said Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman. "The real issue behind the move is Howard's new industrial laws. The union has secured a copy of the intended AWAs that shows the conditions are around 30 per cent less than under the enterprise agreement."

Floaters no longer come under the Navigation Act and despite record profits Diamond is getting greedy.

Confirming the union's suspicions about its motives, the company has employed Clayton Utz, one of the right-wing legal firms that drafted the government's IR laws to threaten the MUA with court action and massive fines.

They faxed the union rooms after business hours on April 7 alleging threatening behaviour of an 'industrial nature' towards the rig and support vessels. They demanded both the national secretary and WA branch secretary make a written commitment that there would be no industrial action by 9am the next day or the company would go straight to the Federal Court seeking costs in the order of US$200,000 a day should there be any action.

Denied industrial action, the MUA has gone through the International Transport Workers' Federation and its offshore taskforce group that includes unions working with Diamond Offshore in the North Sea and off the Brazilian Coast to globalise solidarity against Diamond worldwide.

The International Federation of Chemical Energy Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM) whose international affiliates work on rigs and oil terminals around the world have also forwarded mass protest letters via their affiliates to Diamond.

And in New Zealand the Maritime Union with the support of the Council of Trade Unions has written to the company, the NZ Safety Regulator and PM Helen Clarke questioning the safety of its operation. The MUA also has raised safety concerns with the WA and NT governments and NOPSA.

Under the proposed new crewing arrangement Ocean Bounty could well be in breach of its safety case certificate. And ACTU President Sharan Burrow has written to all oil companies that may charter the Ocean Bounty questioning the safety of the vessel's operations.

Meanwhile the WA Branch has been highlighting the loss of Australian jobs in the offshore industry to foreign workers, with rallies and demonstrations attracting local media.

While agreeing to meet with the union in May, Diamond has rejected all proposals to employ the marine crew directly through an enterprise agreement or a national enterprise agreement or possibly even an international enterprise agreement, saying the Ocean Bounty will operate without a marine crew come June.

POSTSCRIPT: Despite leaked documents from on board management of the Bounty voicing concerns that removing the marine crew would create risks on the "ageing rig" NOPSA would not intervene. MUA members refused any offers to sign up on AWAs and have since left the vessel.

PHOTO: Warren Bellette