BY STEVE ELLIOT DORE
SYDNEY — NSW Labor Premier Bob Carr told the annual NSW Labor Party conference on October 5 that the NSW government does not plan to renew the leases for Patrick Stevedores' Darling Harbour and P&O's White Bay and Glebe Island container terminals, which expire in 2006, 2007 and 2012 respectively.
Talks between the government, P&O and Patrick have gone on behind closed doors for months. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) knew nothing of these discussions. Local officials found out about government's plans while attending the NSW Labor conference.
The NSW government plans to phase out all cargo shipping from Sydney Harbour and divert it to Port Botany, in Sydney's south, to Newcastle or to Port Kembla.
The MUA has pointed out that Port Botany is already operating at close to full capacity and the necessary expansion work on the Port Kembla and Newcastle ports will not be completed until at least 2007.
While Carr has said some of the harbour foreshore will become public parkland, there are suspicions that the vacant ports will be handed to wealthy developers for expensive office and apartment blocks.
P&O management has used the NSW government's announcement to fast-track its cost-cutting agenda. The company plans to transfer its operations from White Bay to Darling Harbour by the end of this year.
Darling Harbour is presently occupied by Patrick Stevedores, but will be managed by a joint P&O and Patrick company once P&O relocates there. These two companies have already jointly formed Australian Automotive Terminals, which manages the Glebe Island car terminal.
The MUA fears that this move to set up another joint company at Darling Harbour is part of a plan by P&O and Patrick to establish similar operations across the country. White Bay has rail access, better truck access and its lease expires a year later than Darling Harbour's.
P&O management in the past has claimed that operations at White Bay were not profitable, a claim used to force a number of concessions from MUA members.
MUA members at White Bay met on October 8 with P&O managing director Tim Blood. MUA national assistant secretary Rick Newlyn, Central NSW branch secretary Robert Coombs and other local officials also attended the meeting.
Despite verbal assurances that no redundancies will take place, around one dozen jobs look likely to disappear. Management would not even guarantee that present shipping contracts would follow P&O over to Darling Harbour.
Blood was asked a number of questions by MUA members before local MUA officials wrapped up the meeting. No vote on proposals for a course of action took place.
However, MUA members were surprised when they saw an article in the October 9 Sydney Morning Herald (web edition) which quoted from an MUA press release dated the same day. The press release reported that the October 8 meeting had voted unanimously to stage a sit-in at White Bay if P&O attempts to move to Darling Harbour.
If only that was true. Unfortunately, the officials missed a golden opportunity to involve members in deciding on an industrial response to P&O's decision by closing the October 8 meeting as soon as the manager left, and not scheduling any further mass meetings to discuss action.
MUA members at White Bay and the other affected wharves are worried about the future of their jobs. They want a mass meeting to discuss what sort of action to take, but are concerned that MUA officials have reported fictitious decisions to take industrial action to the media.
If the MUA Central NSW branch executive has already made such a decision, it needs to be reported to the members urgently. But, the members who are directly affected must also be involved in decisions about what action to take.
A petition is circulating that calls for the MUA Central NSW branch to convene a joint stop-work meeting of all Darling Harbour, White Bay and Glebe Island MUA members to discuss an industrial response to the proposal to shut down White Bay.
[Steve Dore is a pseudonym for an MUA member employed at P&O White Bay. The author has had to assume a pseudonym due to P&O's policy of pursuing disciplinary action against any employee that speaks to the media on company issues.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, October 15, 2003.
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