Industrial rounds

SPOTLIGHT ON DIVE SAFETY

Australia's dive industry is booming but lacks critical unified safety standards and professional training. So the Maritime Union has teamed up with the Australian Workers Union to put the spotlight on safety, training and workplace conditions in this fast growing but unregulated industry.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and

AWU National Secretary Paul Howes flew to Cairns in July and together with AWU president Bill Ludwig met workers, industry and political leaders.

"We must ensure that we put in place measures to safeguard workers including divers and protect the ongoing sustainability of the industry," said Paddy Crumlin.

Currently there are no unified safety standards or regulation in the diving industry.

"Australia is renowned for its world class diving, with tourists travelling across the world just to dive in our waters. We need unified standards and training to ensure the safety of our divers is not compromised," said Paul Howes.

The MUA and the AWU is looking to establish a joint organising campaign similar to the two unions' drive in the hydrocarbon industry for the dive tourist industry. MUA local organiser Brooke O'Mara and hydrocarbon organiser for both unions Bernie Farrelly are working with the local AWU officers to finalise an organising plan.

Oil and gas drive

Australia's Offshore Oil and Gas Industry is poised to play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific by delivering the region secure energy and providing employment opportunities to our neighbours.

MUA Assistant National Secretary Rick Newlyn laid down a challenge to the industry at the SEAAOC (South East Asia Australia Offshore Conference) in Darwin in July, calling for a national blueprint to drive the industry over the coming decades.

"This industry is building Australia's energy security credentials within the region, because we are viewed as strong suppliers as well as producers," he said. "At the same time, the MUA is backing projects in the Timor Sea to give East Timorese nationals training and job opportunities."

Unlike the coal industry which is struggling under increasing bottlenecks at Australian ports, the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry is thriving because it has got the fundamentals right.

"This is an industry that is committed to Australian ships and Australian regulations rather than taking the low-road to cheap Flag of Convenience shipping," said Rick Newlyn. In his speech he urged the Northern Territory Government to deliver on its commitment to establish the NT Oil and Gas Forum to maximise opportunities for Darwin's economy.

Global crew negotiations

A week of intensive negotiations took place in July over the new Developed Economy Ratings Fund (DER Fund), negotiated as part of the International Bargaining Forum Agreement outcomes reached in September 2007.

THE IBF is a process of negotiation between the ITF and FOC operators worldwide covering approximately 5000 vessels and over 150,000 seafarers. The DER Fund was established as part of the last negotiations to help narrow the cost of employing developed economy ratings and ratings from labour supply countries.

The DER Fund of which MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin is a trustee, should see significant reserves helping to fund Australian ratings back into some international shipping trades.

"This is a significant breakthrough, and one which we expect will dovetail neatly into the Rudd Government's shipping policy after the Inquiry reports later this year," said Paddy Crumlin.

The next round of bargaining for the international shipping industry agreement. The National Secretary is the co-chair representing seafarers and dockers.

"Dockers' rights are protected under the IBF agreement by protecting stevedoring workers' jobs from seafarers," said Paddy Crumlin. "The agreement also includes safety monitoring clauses to protect dockworkers from unsafe workplaces."

UNION LEADER FACES PRISON

The Maritime Union of Australia are campaigning to curb the draconian powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission created by the Howard Government. The National Secretary has written to all federal parliamentarians to attend a presentation and speakers against the ABCC at the press club in Canberra in August. The presentation is being led by the CFMEU (Construction division) on behalf of all construction unions and will seek to build support for the early dismantling of the ABCC.

CFMEU member Noel Washington has been charged by the Director of Public Prosecutions and is set to appear in the Magistrates Court in August for refusing to attend an interrogation by the ABCC.

Noel, Senior Vice President of the CFMEU's Victorian Division, faces a prison term.

The ABCC was set up by the Howard Government to harass, intimidate and bully workers and their unions in the construction industry.

"The ABCC are the biggest bullies I've ever dealt with," Noel says. "The laws they have at their disposal have no place in a so-called democratic society like Australia and they use those laws freely to go after ordinary workers.

"They frighten people, they threaten people by forcing them to attend these interrogations. Workers are not entitled to choose their own legal representative and they are forbidden to talk to anyone about what took place in these interrogations."

The ABCC want Noel to answer questions relating to union meetings held at Bovis Lend Lease in 2007. The way Noel sees it, it's none of their business.

Bovis Lend Lease enthusiastically embraced the Howard Government's agenda to weaken unions in the construction industry.

The union has had difficulty getting on Bovis sites and the company is trying to introduce swipe cards in order to further obstruct the right of entry of union officials. Bovis is the company that lodged complaints to the ABCC about another CFMEU organiser, Adrian "Skinner" McLoughlin.

"The last thing I want to do is go to jail," says Noel. "But there are bigger things at stake here - workers' rights for one. And in the building industry, we don't have them."

ILWU win

SAN FRANCISCO: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has clinched agreement in principle with employers for a six-year contract for the more than 25,000 longshore workers at 29 US West Coast ports - at one of the toughest times for the USA and global economies.

ILWU President Bob McEllrath contacted Chair of the ITF Dockworkers and MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin on the day to say the union had reached a tentative agreement. July 28 is also the birthday of legendary union leader and one time Australian seafarer Harry Bridges (1901-1990).

"The resolution at the negotiating table is a great breakthrough and an historic moment," said Paddy Crumlin. "It is in particular a great credit to the ILWU negotiating team led for the first time by big Bob McEllrath. I have congratulated Bob and his team on behalf of the Dockworkers' Section of the ITF in general and the MUA in particular. It is an important development for all dockworkers, maritime workers and transport workers in general."

The contract expired on July 1 and was not extended by the union. The expired five-year contract came out of the controversial and disruptive lock out by employers supported by the Bush administration in 2002.

In a joint press release issued by the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association, the parties announced that after a marathon weekend bargaining session, they had reached preliminary agreement on terms for a new six-year contract.

The agreement is subject to ratification by the ILWU and PMA membership. Meanwhile ILWU and PMA have agreed to extend the previous agreement and resume normal port operations.

Paddy Crumlin said the ITF strongly supported the ILWU in what was seen to be difficult negotiations. The recent ITF Fair Practices Committee in Stockholm received reports from Secretary of the Dockers Frank Leys along with Paddy Crumlin and Willie Adams, Secretary Treasurer of the ILWU and Ray Familathe, its International Officer.

President Bob McEllrath led a large delegation including many members of the ILWU negotiating team to the MUA National Conference in Sydney in April this year.

The many international delegates joined with MUA members in strong resolutions outlining their determination to go the distance with the ILWU.

"They are a wonderful union committed not only to their own members, but to the rights and needs of international workers as well," said Paddy Crumlin. "International dockers joined together with many other international workers in welcoming the prospect of a new contract and congratulating Big Bob, the negotiating group and all ILWU members, pensioners, officers and staff on this achievement.

"This outcome puts the stevedoring industry in the US and internationally in good shape to meet demands in these critical global conditions," he said.

The new agreement will go to a week-long caucus of ILWU members in August before being put to the membership for endorsement. It features:

jobs and wages that support families and strengthen communities and local business

health care - longshore workers are "holding the line" against cuts to health care and retirement benefits

job safety - in the past six years alone, 17 men and women have died while working on the docks

green ports - agreement to help clean the air on the waterfront that is exposing dockworkers - and families with children living nearby - to dangerous air pollution that can cause asthma, heart disease, and cancer.