Patrick Terminals tries to shut down wharf strikes as PM lashes maritime union
Paul Karp Mon 28 Sep 2020 13.45 AEST
Company’s bid in Fair Work Commission comes as Scott Morrison accuses union of holding Australia’s imports and exports to ransom.
A container ship being unloaded at Port Botany, Sydney, earlier this year. Patrick Terminals has applied to the Fair Work Commission to terminate maritime union strikes across Australia. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Patrick Terminals has launched a bid to terminate maritime union strikes across Australia that have been blamed for delays at Sydney’s Port Botany.
After the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) notified the stevedores it intended to strike for 24 hours in Brisbane and Port Botany on Friday, the company hit back with an application to the Fair Work Commission to terminate its industrial action.
The aggressive response follows seven months of bargaining over a new pay deal in which the MUA has asked for 6% pay rises for four years.
The MUA reached in-principle agreement with DP World on Friday, but at Patrick the dispute is heating up, with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, weighing in to accuse the union of holding Australia’s imports and exports to ransom.
Industrial relations minister Christian Porter confirmed the government will weigh in on the side of the company, labelling the planned strike action a “threat to our economic recovery”.
“For a union to be attempting to hold the national economy to ransom to leverage its push for a 6% annual pay rise is simply unforgivable, especially at a time when we are in the grip of a global health and economic crisis,” he said.
Porter claimed that “many industry sectors” including agriculture and road transport had “begun to report supply chain problems which are directly linked to the MUA action”.
Read on here
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... time-union