Mourning for Spirit !!!

Spirit send-off

They marched, some in black, heads bowed in mourning. Family, friends and crew gathered at the funeral of their beloved Spot 3.

The beleaguered Sydney-Devonport ferry had come to the end of its days after suffering ongoing financial loss.

"Heart breaking" was how its MUA crew described its passing. For many young Tasmanians it was their first job.

Despite record bookings and almost daily rallies in Sydney, Melbourne and Devonport in a vain hope of keeping the Sydney run alive, the Spirit of Tasmania III has gone.

"TT Line is letting go of a priceless piece of infrastructure," said Branch Secretary Mick Wickham. "It is bitterly disappointing."

Spirit III made her maiden voyage to Sydney in January

2004, the first time in 30 years a passenger ship had plied the east coast. The first and last since the Australian Trader proudly sailed the east coast back in the seventies. Overnight TT Line became the biggest employer of MUA seafarers.

It was happy crew from the start, despite around half of them being casuals. During the enterprise agreement negotiations that year comrades on the sister ships Spirit 1 & II voted to forgo a pay rise to create more permanent jobs. But the ferry soon ran into rough seas. It wasn't getting the forecast passenger

numbers or freight.

Within a year its life on the coast came under question. The Tasmanian Government agreed to inject an extra $115 million to keep the ferry going - a rescue package that came only after the union embarked on a successful lobbying and media campaign.

State tourism fought alongside the MUA, arguing that the ferry's losses were more than compensated by the benefits of tourism. The Spirit, it was argued, brought 35,000 visitors a year to the state, injecting $105 million in the local economy as well as providing around 2,500 jobs -- 300 for MUA crew. This compared to its projected losses of $25 million. Parliament narrowly voted to rescue the ship and Premier Paul Lennon promised to keep it in business until 2008.

But Treasury had always opposed the ship, first arguing against its purchase and then against its retention on the coast. When TT Line said that despite growing popularity it was still losing money and must go if more funding was unavailable, Treasury advised against keeping the ship running.

Tasmania Branch Secretary Mick Wickham and Sydney Branch Secretary Warren Smith campaigned alongside MUA Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman for the NSW Government to contribute funds to the vessel, as well as calling on the Federal Government for an increase in the freight and passenger equalisation scheme to ease the burden of skyrocketing fuel costs.

"As expected, this was met with deathly silence," said Mick Doleman.

State Cabinet decided unanimously to sell Spirit III following Treasury advice that TT Line, which also operates Spirits 1 and II on the Melbourne/Devonport run, needed at least $38.5 million in 2006-2007 just to remain solvent and $50 million annually to retain Spirit III.

The Premier announced its sale in June. Within weeks the vessel sold to French company Corsica Ferries for more than $A110 million. It was bought in 2003 for about $A83 million.

The union has negotiated a voluntary redundancy package and a proposal to fund training for catering staff to become integrated ratings and fill skills shortages in the oil and gas industry. There will be no forced redundancies and generous payouts.