Timor labour gap

Companies operating in the Joint Petroleum Area off East Timor are 
avoiding union labour and favouring crews from countries outside Timor and 
Australia, National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) 
Paddy Crumlin reports.

Five vessels now operate in the Timorese waters, none of which employ any 
Timorese or Australians. They are crewed by Indonesians, Filipinos, Pacific 
Islanders, even Ukrainians, with a handful of Timorese trainees on the 
construction barge as a token gesture.

ACTU President Sharon Burrow and Mick Doleman from the MUA met with Timor's 
Chief Minister Mati Alkatiri in January, to outline the union proposal for 
Australians and Timorese to share the work.

Under the previous agreement with Indonesia, jobs were filled solely with 
seafarers from Australia and Indonesia.

Doleman also joined WA Branch Secretary Wally Pritchard and CFMEU President 
John Maitland at a seminar in Dili.

The seminar aimed to develop a closer working relationship between both 
countries with a call for Australian unionised workers to fill most of the 
offshore jobs in the short term with the Timorese being trained to fill 90 
per cent of positions in the long term — reflecting the 90 per cent 
Timorese ownership of the field.

But Phillips Petroleum, the company developing the site, is going to great 
lengths to keep the unions out.

"Any contact we made with their contractors McDermotts has been met with 
deadly silence", said Mr Doleman. "Calls are referred to Phillips who 
simply say they don't wish to speak to unions."

Meanwhile, Mr Crumlin has written to the International Transport Workers' 
Federation seeking funding for an organiser to help the Timorese unions, 
especially in the maritime and hydrocarbon fields. An MUA rank and filer 
has been recommended.

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Maritime Workers' Journal, Autumn 2002