A Tale of Two Ships
 |
The Accolade
|
Australian seafarers back up the gangway as hostilities between Australian seafarers CSL & ISM go on standby
The Accolade, the Iron Chieftain and the Pacific. Three ships which have been
lost to the MUA. But in 2003 the union successfully negotiated settlements and
got Australian seafarers back up the gangway of two of these ships. The CSL
Pacific is still to come.
The Iron Chieftain sailed back to Australia after dry docking in Singapore
at Christmas time. It was flying the Australian flag, with a full Australian
crew on board.
IR Aaron Schubert, 28, was with the vessel for more than five years before
it was sold. He rejoined the Chieftain for the 12 day run back home from Singapore
and will go as CIR on the second swing:
"It's good to be back on the ship. Morale is high. The new system is good.
We are in the spotlight. If this doesn't work it could be the end of our industry
so everyone is committed to making it work. If we need to make a few changes
to make it work we'll do it."
The return of the Chieftain was down to the Maritime Union successfully negotiating
an agreement with CSL and International Ship Management that saves ship owners
being dependent on expensive onshore maintenance contractors.
An Independent Review of Australian Shipping (see box) released in August highlighted
the problem of high maintenance costs. One recommendation the union took on
board was to have crew with trade qualifications coming into the industry as
trainees.
The union insisted that any trainees recruited with trade certificates must
be trained up as IRs. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority agreed. As well,
existing IRs are to be further trained up in welding and other skills needed
on board as part of an enterprise agreement with CSL.
Following the settlement, the union is pursuing further negotiations with CSL
that could lead to an Australian crew getting back on board the CSL Pacific
(formally the River Torrens) for the first time since it was flagged out in
February 2000.
Hostilities between CSL and the union had been escalating since the company
flagged out its second ship, the Yarra, and brought it back into the Australian
trade as the Stadacona with Ukranian crew. Sit ins, court action, protests and
demonstrations had been the order of the day since May, 2002. And while the
2003 MUA victory in the High Court gave Australia jurisdiction over ships trading
on the coast, the Commission later rejected the union submission to rope in
the CSL vessels under the Maritime Industry Seagoing Award.
This potentially opened the way for yet more protracted litigation and legal
arguments.
"The Chieftain EA is a good agreement," said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin.
"It marks a return by CSL to more normalised industrial relations. Now we want
Australian seafarers back up the gangway of the Pacific. CSL have agreed to
negotiate. We only have to agree on when and how our members go back on board.
If we settle with CSL the High Court decision will have been formalised industrially.
If we don't settle the MUA will be back in the AIRC seeking to rope CSL into
an award. We think the company would prefer to settle."
Back in August things did not look so good. BHP Billiton put the Chieftain
on the market. The vessel serviced OneSteel out of Whyalla and was purpose built
for the job. Teekay managed the vessel and employed the MUA crew. But the ship
went to CSL, with ISM taking over ship management.
OneSteel was not happy. Teekay was 30 per cent owned by BHP but it lost the
tender. So did CSR and ASP. At least four Australian companies tendered, but
it was the Canadians who got the ship and the contract.
MUA seafaring jobs on the ship were in jeopardy.
"When CSL got the Chieftain the unions insisted that it had to keep the Australian
flag and Australian crew to work on the Australian coast under Australian law,"
said Paddy Crumlin. "Our worry was that due to the Howard Government Workplace
Relations Act 'Australian law' meant CSL could have put a non union crew on
AWAs to work the vessel."
The MUA took the matter to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
"The union threw tremendous resources into negotiations over six weeks," said
Crumlin. "CSL was critical of the aggregate wage, having previously claimed
in the Commission that Australian seafarers had no work ethic."
At one point CSL had threatened to take the ship off the run and put it into
the North American trade. The Chieftain was specifically built to service Whyalla
and Port Kembla. It would have been a great loss and a difficult ship to replace.
Ship Shortage
There is a chronic lack of tonnage in the global bulk freight industry. OneSteel
would have had great difficulty sourcing a replacement vessel. A massive increase
in shipping to and from China in recent months has created a ship shortage.
Freight rates in bulk have skyrocketed to three or four times the rate of six
months back. Mostly this is good news for Australian seafarers. It means full
employment.
"The union fought hard for our right to crew the vessel," said Crumlin. "CSL
agreed to negotiate. The company also said it was willing to recrew the CSL
Pacific (formerly River Torrens) and other CSL vessels working full time on
the Australian coast with Australian seafarers if agreement was reached."
Negotiating for the union were Paddy Crumlin, Assistant National Secretary
Rick Newlyn and SNSW Branch Secretary Mark Armstrong.
The new EBA differs from the Teekay agreement as it includes guaranteed overtime
payments on top of the aggregate wage. This averages out at around $10,000 extra
per annum and is especially to cover maintenance work. The company is also seeking
to upskill MUA ratings to do this work on deck and in the engine room so they
will not be so reliant on shore based contractors.
Port Kembla Branch Secretary Mark Armstrong said that in essence the new system
is what shipping reform was meant to achieve.
"This is what the MIDC system was all about," he said. "IRs being trained up
-- having a career path. And what's most important is all tradesmen have to be
IRs. The company's prepared to train people up and they are going to train people
up."
CSL has committed to greatly increase training funds for IRs. This comes at
a time when many Australian shipowners are reluctant to put training programs
in place. Some of the new trainees are tradespersons recruited into the industry
to help lower the high cost of shore maintenance support. Training courses start
early in the New Year.
"The new system is good," said IR Aaron Schubert. "Before we had a lot of contractors
on board. Now they've brought in skilled people to join the crew. We'll be doing
nine tenths of the work on board and we get paid extra for doing it. The company
is already paying one bloke, Dean Boles, to finish his boilermaker ticket. They
are willing to train people. And they are prepared to pay us to do the extra
work. Everyone is saying this is the new way of doing things. Change is not
bad, it's a good system. It's good news for our industry. Who would knock back
the opportunity to do a trade? I went straight from high school to working on
ships. My only regret was I didn't get to do a trade. Now I can. Now they've
offered to train me up to second mate."
Meanwhile the union and CSL have agreed to co-operate in overcoming a labour
shortage until the trainees come on board. TIRs will be rotated on the vessel
while completing their studies at the Maritime College.
The agreement is based on the maritime industry seagoing award and will be
a template for CSL and a benchmark for the blue water industry.
Assistant National Secretary Rick Newlyn flew out to Singapore on the eve of
the vessel's return trip to Australia in December to visit the Chieftain at
the end of its docking. He debriefed the current crew who were being repatriated
to Australia and held a meeting with the new crew members to go through the
EBA which is due to go to a vote of members before being certified in the Commission.
The Accolade
Settlement with CSL and ISM over the Chieftain follows an equally pleasing
outcome with the Accolade in November.
It started as a lockout in May last year. It was the annual lay-up of the Accolade
II and the bulk carrier was shutdown at Adelaide Brighton Cement as a 'dead
ship'.
"We thought something was up when they told us to get everything out of the
freezer," said IR Paul Manual.
"First thing our members knew was their swipe cards were inactivated so they
could not access the ABC facility or the ship when they went to report for work,"
said Branch Secretary Jamie Newlyn. "This was followed by a whistle blower at
ABC who let us know they'd sighted labour on the vessel."
Paul Manual recalls they were out the gates two weeks.
"Management brought us into the union rooms and made us redundant by changing
the classification for IR to marine technician," he said. "It was to get rid
of the MUA. They also got rid of the two second mates and the cooks. The ship
would have been unsafe."
The branch reported to national office and the union took the matter straight
to the Commission seeking relief and orders. The commissioner gave ISM and the
MUA an option to sit down and reach agreement for a trial period over crewing.
"Paddy and everyone was wise to what the company was doing," said Manual. "They're
not fools. If the company could get away with it on the Accolade, they could
have got away with it on every ship sailing within 200 nautical miles of the
coast."
ISM wanted to reduce the number of IRs and had successfully approached AMSA
to reduce IRs from 4 to 2. The union appealed and this led to AMSA changing
to 3 IRs.
ISM also wanted to do away with the cook. The union insisted the position stayed.
The Accolade embarks on a 14-hour voyage from 2am until 4pm in the afternoon.
Take-away pizza or TV dinners were not up to scratch.
Eventually both parties agreed to a three-month review.
The crew walked back up the gangway minus one IR and over the next three months
crew levels, work practices and the cook's tasks and duties were carefully monitored.
In November the review was finalised. Work practice issues were resolved and
the cooks' position retained. The MUA will continue to sail the Accolade. And
the first crew began training in maintenance.
"We still don't trust management but the blokes I work with are keen to learn
a trade," said Manual, a construction worker and diver before going to sea.
"Charlie Jones has gone off to train in welding and cutting. It will be an absolute
benefit to work on the discharge gear. We're all happy with this. It's good."
Not tat it's all good back on board. Chief IR Eddie Seale reports that ISM
sacked one of the cooks some weeks later for climbing over a fence to help a
workmate who'd fallen over and was unconscious.
"We've still got problems," he said. "But they are leaving us alone for now.
But they still could go us again.
Back To Top
See also Off the Radar
|
