Australian dock workers in the ports of Adelaide and Melbourne returned to work after a negotiated ceasefire between workers belonging to the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and terminal operator, Dubai Ports World (DP World). A series of job actions and retaliatory lockouts had disrupted cargo transports in the two ports. The lockout is becoming the weapon of choice for aggressive employers around the globe who are trying to undermine wages and working conditions in pursuit of increased profit.
“We’ve never had any issue with DP World – even during the Patrick dispute in 1998. All we can put it down to is a high turnover in management at the global level.” said Paddy Crumlin, National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia.
The central issue in the fight is safety and working conditions on the docks. The MUA members made it clear in their vote to return to work that the safety concerns were not negotiable.
“We need to make it clear to all stevedores that we are insisting on significant safety improvements to be delivered in workplace agreements,” Crumlin said. Australian port workers have a 40 percent greater risk of death compared to other workers in the country. Other issues in the dispute include compensation and the regularization of a large casual workforce.
DP World, based in Dubai, is the third largest stevedoring company worldwide, operating more than 60 terminals across six continents. DP World does not currently operate in any West Coast U.S. ports, but has been operating for six years at Centennial Pier at the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
“We had some serious problems with bad managers in the beginning,” said ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne, “but those managers were eventually fired and things have been better since.”
On January 4th, DP World announced plans for a three-year agreement in Vancouver, British Columbia that would expand operations to include the Port of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, including the general cargo at the Duke Point facility and Assembly Wharf. Dufresne said, “We’ll be keeping a close eye on DP World.”