Backing A Winner

MUA Lorelay crew donate $63,000 to the union fighting fund.

They chained themselves to the pylons, went on a hunger strike, protested covered in oily slick, rallied, letterboxed and lobbied. From Gladestone to Gunnedah, Vancouver to Kaohsiung, in Cottesloe and Canberra, seafarers were battling for their jobs and their ships. Three months and three vessels sunk with the loss of all 100 jobs. First the Yarra, then the OOCL Australia, then the Wallarah. But it was also a time of spectacular victories, with two wins in the industrial courts that could turn the tide in the sea wars.

Rumours had been rife on the Yarra as she sailed from Port Pirie. Though the once proud Australian bulk carrier already flew the Bahamas flag, the Australian crew were still on board after the 14 day sit-in and settlement brokered between the unions and ship's owner Canadian Steamship Co.

The CSL Yarra was to ply the coast for six weeks before taking a load of coal from Newcastle to Noumea where the crew were to be repatriated. The ship was then to sail into international waters never to return. A new ship would fly the Australian flag on the Australian coast in her place.

Or at least that was the deal.

"We hadn't even left Port Pirie when the talk started", said delegate John Smith. "The Yarra wasn't going anywhere for long. She'd be back. That's what we were hearing."

CSL was using the lack of suitable replacement vessel to carry Australian cargo to persuade Adelaide Brighton Cement to continue to use their vessel. ABC had tendered the contract and a number of Australian operators were keen to use Australian vessels. But the contract would take time to finalise.

The Yarra made a visit to Australia under another name - the Stadacona.

"CSL crept back in like a mangy dog," said National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "They're carrying the fleas that have jumped off the government shipping policy."

It was clear the pressure needed to be maintained on ABC to meet their undertaking to award the contract to an Australian operator. And the ACTU, the maritime unions and the AWU reaffirmed their determination to do this.

By the second trip on August 2, the response was in full swing.

Southern Queensland Branch Secretary Mick Carr reports:

"Thirty members, including three retirees drove and bussed from Brisbane to Gladstone overnight where they got together with local members to plan a hot reception when the Stadacona (alias Yarra) arrived."

That morning three boats left the wharf and a busload of protesters set out for the main entrance.

"But we got a call saying the coppers had been tipped off and were swarming the place," Mick said. "So Plan B was swung into action."

A carload of sacked crew members headed to a nearby creek where they boarded a small fast boat and took off for Fisherman's Landing. While the police were busy confronting the bus load of protestors 100 metres back from the wharf, the ex crew were ferried alongside the wharf access, ladders were thrown up and crew clambered onto the wharf.

Yarra chief cook Peter Ryan, IR Shane Holmes and Alan Schluter, along with a retired member, chained themselves to pylons at around 9am.

"When police saw the protestors on the wharf they blew up, arresting five people including two pensioners," said Carr. "Chaos ruled."

Chief steward Dianne Kelly headed a group of around 30 supporters who stood by waving flags and banners, cheering the protestors on from the wharf. A small boatload of protestors also waited on the water. As the ship approached the berth they give live to air interviews to media covering the action.

"John Anderson will go down in history as the minister of shipwrecks, not the minister for shipping, said protestor Peter Ryan, formerly chief cook on the Yarra. "We're Australian workers and we want to work. This is a personal protest against the Howard Government letting foreign ships and crew take Australian jobs, forcing us onto the dole. I've got a mortgage and family," he said.

"I've been in the workforce since I was 15 years of age and this is the first time I've ever been unemployed," said grandmother and former Yarra cook Dianne Kelly.

Finally the pilot ordered tugs to hold the vessel off the berth while police and plant workers took the best part of an hour to cut through the industrial strength chains binding the four men to the pylons.

ANL OOCL

That same day the national secretary was in the Industrial Relations Commission in Melbourne fighting for the jobs of another 34 Australian seafarers.

This time it was the ANL boxship OOCL Australia.

The liner vessel was plying the Indian Ocean on its way back from Taiwan when rumours, began bubbling to the surface.

"Rumours are nothing unusual on this vessel," wrote bosun Jon Elmer on behalf of the crew. "Redundancies had been paid back in November last year. But this time we were particularly concerned. Three trainees on board were leaving ahead of time, members on leave had been told they would not be rejoining the ship and our EBA was due to expire."

Elmer contacted the Melbourne union rooms as soon as the ship was in phone range. Deputy Secretary John Higgins had also heard 'a whisper from the seagulls'.

OOCL Australia was once the publicly owned Australian Endeavour, one of a fleet of 32 ANL vessels that flew the Australian flag. When the Howard Government came to power the Australian National Line was divvied up between the French multinational CGM and CSL which took the two coastal bulk traders the River Torrens and the Yarra.

Now the OOCL Australia had joined a new conference.

When the ship arrived in port on July 22, the crew called for a meeting with management. But ANL said they were too busy dealing with the repercussions of one of their Flag of Convenience vessels, the ANL Excellence. The ship had run aground on a mud bank off Brisbane a week earlier.

So the crew accepted management's word that the OOCL would sail to Brisbane as scheduled while ANL and the union talked."

Two days later all hell broke loose. It was Sunday, August 25. The master called a meeting to tell his crew he'd been ordered to bypass Brisbane and proceed directly to Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

"We were stunned and bewildered," said Elmer. "This was an act of treachery and deceit. Where did we stand? We were devastated. It took a while for it to sink in. This was the last Australian box boat trading internationally and we had been sold out."

While the ship was still in phone range, messages of support came from around the country protesting ANL's decision to flag out and make all 34 crew redundant.

"We thought it was all over," said Elmer. "There was nothing more that could be done."

But the battle for the OOCL Australia had just begun. MUA legal officer Bill Giddins rang the ship late that night. Over the following four days the national secretary was in Melbourne with the unions barristers and giving extensive evidence, including under cross examination by a football team of ANL lawyers.

On Friday, as the vessel sailed into a weekend of silence, ITF Australia co-ordinator Dean Summers was on a flight to join the crew in Taiwan and explain how the union had won an interim order from the Commission preventing the hand over of the ship. And in Melbourne, outraged crew of the Bass Trader, the last ANL vessel still registered in Australia, voted to keep their ship in port. They holed up on board the vessel at Appleton Dock and announced a hunger strike, delaying its departure to Burnie, Tasmania over the weekend.

"We could be next," said IR Barry Saint. "This protest is to show that Australian seafarers and their families are going to be left starving while the Australian shipping industry is replaced by shonky flag of convenience vessels."

On Sunday ACTU President Sharan Burrow, clergy and community leaders joined the crew to condemn the action of ANL.

Meanwhile the OOCL Australia had arrived in Taiwan, its crew still not fully aware of events unfolding back home.

"Upon arrival in Kaohsiung, it was on,' said Jon. "We lowered the gangway and allowed Dean on board with local ITF representative Father Bruno Cicera. Then we immediately raised the gangway allowing no one else on board. We wanted a chance to talk with the ITF and assess our situation. We were worried that if Taiwan immigration came on board, they could have us deported."

On board Summers explained how the Commission interim order prevented the handover of the ship before midday Monday when Senior Deputy President Watson would hand down the final decision.

"We had to ensure that we would still be on board at midday Monday so the gangway stayed up, until we had a guarantee from management," said Elmer.

Crew then busied themselves preparing and hanging banners -- one in Chinese so that the locals had some idea of what was going on.

"We were making history," said Jon. "We had stuck up an Australian ship in a foreign port. We had no idea what might happen. The agent said the lines might be cut."

On the wharf armed soldiers and police stood by.

Once the crew got written assurance from management on the Sunday that ANL would abide by the interim order and there would be no retaliation, the crew lowered the gangway and cargo work got under way.

Then the news. August 5 and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled against ANL. It was a decision described by MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin and ACTU Secretary Greg Combet as a staggering victory. The Australian union movement had made a stand in defence of Australian seafarers' rights and won.

The Commission found ANL had avoided any negotiations or proceedings and ordered both ASP Ship Management and the company to immediately confer with the maritime unions. The orders required ASP Ship Management to keep the crew employed for three months. It also prevented ANL from chartering or selling the OOCL Australia. ANL had to supply the union solicitors with all documents relating to their decision to reflag.

"ANL was found conspiratorial in order to avoid talks with the unions," said Paddy Crumlin. "And they had done so with the federal ministers for transport and workplace relations, Anderson and Abbott, applauding and urging them on."

The Australian crew had to hand over their ship and return to Australia while talks aimed at reinstating their right to work got under way.

The same day, ANL offered to meet the unions with a view to reaching understandings about Australian seafarers crewing either the OOCL Australia, its replacement vessel or a new coastal container service. Talks were held in Hong Kong between ANL chief executive John Lyons in transit from Korea and Paddy Crumlin en route to the ITF Congress in Vancouver. And a third meeting was scheduled for the end of the month with the ACTU, ANL and the maritime unions in Melbourne.

"On board the mood was ecstatic," said Elmer. "We'd done it. We'd forced the issue and got a very promising result. The replacement crew made up of Filipinos and Sri Lankans arrived and we welcomed them on board as fellow workers. We made it clear there were no hard feelings. They were just doing their jobs."

Wallarah

But while ANL and the maritime unions reached a truce abroad, on the home front hostilities were escalating. For 16 years two crew of 18 had sailed the 6666-dwt-bulk carrier Wallarah, shipping coal from the port of Newcastle 90 miles to the long ocean jetty at the south end of Catherine Hill Bay.

The ship had been struggling for years, with the crew even sacrificing wages to keep it going with community backing. Then, on August 21, Lloyds List reported that BHP had sold the once proud Australian flagged and crewed Wallarah along with the Catho Mines to Tony Haggarty's Lake Coal operation. Haggarty's was a company associated with Intercontinental Ship Management.

"The vessel was secretly sold (not that big a secret) to Intercontinental Ship Management," Paddy Crumlin told members at stopwork meetings that month. "They set up a bogus shipping company registered in the Netherlands. Every attempt Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman made to speak with the company proved fruitless."

To add insult to injury the bulk carrier went to a flag of ill repute - Tonga. The register was facing closure only weeks earlier after three vessels in the FOC fleet were embroiled in people smuggling, gun running and suspected terrorist shipments off the US and subsequently Italy (see box).

The Wallarah was the last local crew to go in a port which once boasted a fleet of ships running the coast and inland up the rivers, employing thousands of seafarers.

"Even 10 years back there were 100 or more seafarers who called Newcastle their home port," IR Ken Walker told The Newcastle Herald. "Now, I look around the room and there's only a few dozen of us here. The Wallarah crew was the last local crew shipping out of this port. Newcastle is the biggest coal export port in the world. But the crews that come in here are 100 per cent foreign and the ships are 100 per cent foreign owned."

"They'll bring it back to the coast," said IR Ken Walker. "It mightn't be carrying coal, but it will be back and they'll be doing it with a foreign crew."

But the ship never even left the coast. It was put straight into dry dock in Newcastle for a refit, renamed the Ikuna and crewed with a Tongan crew who were flown into Newcastle to join the ship.

The community rallied behind the union, symbolically occupying the vessel and waving banners before it came out of dry dock. They took with them representatives of the local Tongan community to let the crew know all anger and concern was directed towards the shipowner, not the seafarers on board.

Within days the Wallarah was shipping wheat to Port Kembla and back.

"I felt like I lost something of me when the Wallarah went," said IR Marty de Bavay. "There's this emptiness and anger. When it was coming back into port I was ready to do anything."

In Kembla the South Coast Labour Council stood beside the MUA promising an "all out community campaign". TLC Secretary Arthur Rorris contacted Newcastle Trades Hall, mounting a two-city campaign against the ship.

When the Ikuna arrived at Port Kembla Grain Terminal on Tuesday September 24, MUA members voted to reconvene the monthly stop work meeting at the grain terminal.

"AWU workers brought soft drinks, solidarity and support," said Branch Secretary Mark Armstrong. "But it was no picnic. We looked on horrified as the ship suddenly listed 30 degrees."

"WORKERS CHEAT DEATH AS CARGO SHIP LURCHES," the Illawarra Mercury reported. Two Graincorp workers directing loading at the time of the near disaster were thrown off their feet and narrowly missed being flung overboard.

A once fine Australian ship had overnight become a threat to life and limb.

Buy yet again the Government had come down in favour of the foreign shipowner, giving the vessel permission to stay and trade on the coast.

Meanwhile the CSL Pacific, under investigation by the Department of Transport after a crew member was severely injured, got yet another six month continuous voyage permit.

Legal Action

Egged on by Minister for Workplace Relations Tony Abbott CSL now agreed to bring out the heavy ammunition against the unions. They filed for an injunction and damages against the MUA, the ACTU, the AWU, AIMPE, AMOU, ACTU President Sharan Burrow and MUA federal officers Rick Newlyn and Mick Doleman in the Federal Court over alleged union attempts to prevent CSL ships trading in Australia.

Poster Campaign

On the first day of hearings, August 27, a contingent of seafarers held up posters outside the Federal Court depicting terrorist Osama bin Laden alongside John Howard under the heading "What do these two men have in common?"

It was a controversial move picked up by the Daily Telegraph, Jeff Kennett on Melbourne talk back radio and the Deputy PM John Anderson.

Provoked, the minister made the mistake of issuing a media statement condemning the poster as "overstepping every hallmark of decency."

Suggesting similarities between our prime minister and one of the most horrific terrorists the world has ever seen was "absolutely despicable," he claimed.

This outburst only made the poster -- previously not newsworthy enough for the Newcastle Herald -- worth printing.

Mission Mass Leaflet

Nor was the minister happy about the ongoing infiltration of his electorate by maritime workers. That got a mention in his statement too.

On Wednesday, September 4 a contingent of Newcastle MUA members and retirees, led by Fred Krausert, made a third foray into Anderson's heartland. They'd previously been there to leaflet the AGQuip agricultural show and distribute the first of 20,000 leaflets depicting the deputy PM as Homer Simpson (see overleaf).

This trip they aimed to let Mr Anderson's constituents know how ignorant their local member was by letterboxing his voters in Walgett, Wellington, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Mudgee and Moree.

"Country people know how important it is not to sell off the farm. Why sell off the fleet to foreign interests?" said delegation leader Fred Krausert.

World Stage

While Fred and his mates were wearing out shoe leather around the back of Bourke, bringing people on side, National Secretary Paddy Crumlin was in Vancouver mobilising international support at the ITF Congress.

With the backing of the giant Canadian Auto Workers and seafaring unions ITF delegates condemned the company for the introduction of FOC vessels into the Australian domestic shipping industry. Congress then called on prime ministerial aspirant Paul Martin, the sole shareholder in CSL, to act, threatening a demonstration of 1000 ITF delegates in front of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Martin preferred to talk. A time was set for October with the MUA National Secretary, the head of the CAW and the Canadian Seamen's Union.

"Our shipping campaign will concentrate on demonstrating to the would be PM, the link between our jobs and his political future," Paddy Crumlin told the monthly Sydney stopwork meeting.

Commission Victory

But the big blow to CSL and Canberra sounded on September 27 when the Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission decided in favour of the maritime unions roping in CSL Pacific under the Maritime Industry Seagoing Award.

During the initial hearings CSL lawyers, with the backing of the Federal Government, argued that the Commission did not have jurisdiction to hear the union application. They argued that flagging out its ships was no different than Australian textile companies moving offshore. The union lawyers, led by QC Jeff Shaw, claimed that CSL was involved in a corporate ship shuffling exercise to subvert the Award and avoid the Commission's reach.

"In effect the Commission has found that CSL employ foreign guest labour in an Australian industry," said Paddy Crumlin. "Its foreign workforce has replaced Australian taxpayers and residents and put them on the dole to watch on as their ship continues to ply the same domestic trade it has for move than 15 years."

The Commission gave the parties 15 working days "to show cause as to why the Award should not be varied to include CSL Pacific Shipping Inc while trading in Australian waters under a permit or license granted under the Navigation Act or on a voyage to or from a port in Australia".

The unions have since included the Stadacona in the roping in case and foreshadowed others would also go on its list.

CSL and the Government have said they are appealing to the High Court.

The full bench, Justice Paul Munro, Senior Deputy President Anne Harrison and Commissioner Frank Rafaelli provisionally roped in CSL Pacific Shipping, registered in the Bahamas by varying the award under Section 1123 of the Workplace Relations Act.

Two Commission hearings, two good results. By September the unions also had an outcome with ANL. Jon Elmers and his crew mates would rejoin the OOCL Australia, now the ANL Australia. Their jobs are guaranteed for six months, double the time awarded by the Commission.

Shipping Forum

Another reprieve. But this time the unions are tackling the issues alone. While Maurice Blackburn Cashman, the lawyers who beat Patrick and the Government in the courts in 1998 are fine tuning legal strategy, former transport ministers John Sharpe and Peter Morris are at the helm of an industry forum that includes shipowners, shippers and unions to work out truce that will see Australia maintain its merchant marine.

And,as MWJ goes to press Naitonal Secretary Paddy Crumlin was returning from the ITF brokered Montreal meeting with CSL executives.