Maritime Union still at war with CSL

by Janice Hamilton

CSL's demand for unlimited working hours on its coastal ships is a serious 
threat to Australia's marine environment. Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) 
National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said CSL's demands raise the spectre of an 
armada of flag of convenience ships operating as floating time bombs on 
Australia's coast, including the Great Barrier Reef.

The MUA warning follows an attack on the working hours of seafarers by CSL 
chief Chris Sorensen who complained that Australian crews were not 
competitive because they were not prepared to work as much overtime as 
their foreign counterparts.

"This is crazy", Mr Crumlin said.

"Australian seafarers already work the longest hours of any country in the 
OECD and we are on call 24-hours a day. We have Australian crews working 
12-hour shifts and, when needed, up to 18-hours.

"What Sorensen and CSL want is underpaid foreign seafarers whose only 
option of raising their pay is through working regular excessive hours on 
flag of convenience ships."

Mr Crumlin said that behind CSL's "lies, deceit and distortions" is its 
real agenda for a totally deregulated Australian coastal shipping industry 
stripped of Australian standards.

"CSL wants to impose Third World conditions and standards on Australia and 
it is using every trick in the book in a desperate attempt to justify 
replacing Australian seafarers with foreign workers.

"This Government is not only undermining Australia's national interest in 
backing CSL and its flags of convenience mates, it is also tinkering with 
an environmental time bomb."

Mr Crumlin said the MUA would not be intimidated by CSL's move to sue the 
MUA, the ACTU and the Australian Workers' Union for defending the country's 
national interests in fighting against the move to flag of convenience 
shipping.

Furthermore five protestors were arrested in Gladstone (Queensland), 
including 80-year-old grandfather Pincher Martin. The five were arrested 
during a demonstration when dumped CSL Yarra crew chained themselves to the 
wharf pylons where the Yarra, now the Stadacona, was due in to load clinker 
for Brisbane.

Meanwhile the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled against 
ANL ditching its Australian crew in Taiwan.

Paddy Crumlin and ACTU Secretary Greg Combet described the decision as a 
staggering victory in defence of Australian seafarers' rights in the 
ongoing battle to stop foreign shipping companies replacing the Australian 
shipping fleet with substandard flag of convenience vessels.

The dispute over crewing of the ANL box ship OOCL Australia went to 
the Commission last week after ANL announced they would be reflagging and 
recrewing the vessel, making all 34 jobs redundant.

The company then ordered the ship to bypass its scheduled port of Brisbane 
and sail for Taiwan, secretly reflagging the vessel in the Bahamas.

The Commission found ANL had avoided any negotiations or proceedings and 
ordered both ship management and the company to immediately confer with the 
maritime unions.

The orders require ANL to keep the crew employed. ANL is not to take any 
further steps that would impede the employment of Australian seafarers on 
the OOCL Australia or a replacement ship used by ANL in the North-
East Asian trade.

The orders also prevent ANL from chartering or otherwise selling the OOCL 
Australia. "ANL was found conniving and conspiratorial in order to 
avoid talks with the unions", said Mr Crumlin.

"And they have done so with both the Ministers for Transport and Workplace 
Relations Anderson and Abbott applauding and urging them on. It is all part 
of the ongoing conspiracy against the Maritime Union. That's why we have a 
foreign crew waiting at the bottom of the gangway of the OOCL Australia in 
Taiwan ready to take Australians jobs."

The crew will have to return to Australia while legal action to reinstate 
their right to work proceeds.

In urgent meetings convened after the Commission decision ANL offered to 
meet the unions with a view to reaching understandings about ongoing 
crewing by Australian seafarers on either the OOCL Australia, its 
replacement vessel or a new coastal container service.