Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members at聽Patrick聽Stevedores in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle will take protected industrial action in聽October. This follows more than 18 months of negotiations for a new enterprise agreement (EA).
The MUA said on September 27 that hundreds of its members will strike for 48 hours in Sydney鈥檚 Port Botany on October 2-3, and for 12 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Melbourne for the month of October.
Patrick CEO Michael Jovicic claimed the union聽had 鈥渃ompletely lost the plot鈥 and was 鈥渆mbarking on a major pre-Christmas industrial campaign鈥. MUA聽national assistant secretary Jamie Newlyn criticised Jovicic鈥檆 鈥渃orporate spin鈥, saying management had made a series of exaggerated and untrue claims about the breakdown of talks over a new agreement.
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Newlyn said Patrick鈥檚 claim to be losing markets is wrong. The company is making record profits, he said, by price gouging terminal access charges and other shipping fees.
鈥淭here is ample capacity for other stevedoring companies on the Australian waterfront to load and unload cargo鈥, Newlyn said, adding that the union鈥檚 protected industrial action will not threaten imported goods or Christmas presents.
Patrick had said it would 鈥渞oll over鈥 the existing EA, but this did not happen: it had insisted on workplace changes, including greater casualisation.
鈥淧roductivity is at a high and protected industrial action is a last resort to finalise an agreement that is almost 18 months past expiry鈥, Newlyn said. He added that Patrick聽employees are 鈥渇rustrated鈥 at 鈥渃orporate tactics to deny a modest pay rise and remove previously agreed conditions on secure jobs鈥.
鈥淗ad the CEO not intervened in the Port Botany bargaining, agreement would have been reached locally.鈥