Published: 16 Dec 2024
MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA
MEDIA RELEASE
16 December 2024
International Day of Action against Qube Ports: wharfies stop work at ten Australian ports
Australian wharfies will strike across ten ports in an International Day of Action where they will be joined by representatives of the international dockers movement via live video conferences across Australia. The International Day of Action is in response to expose Qube Ports’ refusal to bargain genuinely. Qube continue to avoid serious safety, fatigue and work-life balance concerns during bargaining for a new employment agreement covering more than 1000 workers.
Qube Ports, an ASX listed behemoth which has extracted mega-profits in recent years from the productivity delivered by their workers and has doggedly refused to sit down and genuinely negotiate a new agreement with their workforce.
Qube wharfies find out at 4pm each day if they’re required to work the next day, and face the prospect of up to 20 different shift start times each day on shifts between 7 and 12 hours. Workers are regularly required to work within 8 hours of the conclusion of the last shift, leaving wharfies exhausted on the job as they get thrown from evening shifts to day shifts and back again at the whim of roster managers.
In dispute are outrageously dangerous fatigue and safety problems and work-life balance complaints that every other Australian worker would consider obscene. The conditions have taken huge tolls on family life and make it near impossible for Qube workers to plan anything with their family including weekend sporting events with kids or being able to pick them up from school.
While wharfies’ pay has been slashed due to inflation, executive bonuses and shareholder dividends have soared. Over the last four years, Qube profits have jumped by 148%.
MUA members employed at Qube’s bulk and general ports across Australia have been taking protected industrial action since September after EBA negotiations were repeatedly and deliberately sabotaged by Qube managers. Ballots of members for industrial action have been returned with between 97 and 100% support in every instance, highlighting how out of touch Qube is with their employees.
The MUA has repeatedly called on the company to engage in meaningful and genuine bargaining and deal with the safety, fatigue and work-life balance concerns that Qube employees are raising, but the company continues reject every one of the workers core claims.
“Qube has one clear objective here, which is to trigger intractable bargaining provisions within Australian industrial relations law, so they can avoid participating in genuine negotiation in the pursuit of continued huge profits. Their end goal is to get an arbitrated outcome which they believe will be better for the bottom line than what they can manage with their own negotiators around the bargaining table,” said Warren Smith, the Deputy National Secretary of the MUA.
“We are tired of the stupid gameplaying and manipulation by maritime employers like Qube. We intend to escalate action until common sense and a genuine and respectful approach is shown by Qube to the many real issues that arise from the outrageous, family destroying flexibility that Qube abuses it workforce with.
Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Carl Findlay says New Zealand wharfies will be supporting the MUA in their struggle, with delegates heading across the Tasman in both directions, and protest events to be held in New Zealand ports.
“Qube is now operating in New Zealand ports, and Qube management need to be aware their actions in Australia will have consequences for their international brand and credibility unless they change their attitude towards their workforce,” Mr Findlay said
ENDS
