The Maritime Union of Australia has escalated industrial action at Patrick Terminals, with hundreds of wharfies to strike for 12 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Melbourne for the whole of October.
The strike will disrupt Melbourne and Sydney ports already dealing with unpredictable COVID-19 shutdowns, such as Victoria International Container Terminals’ (VICT) closure last week when four staff members tested positive to COVID-19.
Patrick’s Fremantle wharfies downed tools for last weekend while Melbourne wharfies stopped work for 24 hours over the same period. Every terminal including Brisbane also has to deal with various work bans, including on overtime and shift upgrades.
Patrick Terminals said the port disruption follows some 12 months of industrial action, totalling almost 200 notifications, that have cost it more than $15 million in revenue and decreased its market share from 48 per cent to 43 per cent.
Michael Jovicic, Patrick Terminals CEO says the timing of the campaign is challenging given on third of Melbourne’s container terminal capacity has been impacted by the pandemic.
“It seems that the union is trying to starve the Melbourne public of Christmas presents after all that Victorians have gone through over the past 18 months – it is truly mind-boggling,” he says.
The Liberal Nationals have called for rapid testing to be rolled out across the sector to help solve some of the issues around COVID testing and for a national approach to interstate border requirements.
Roma Britnell says Labor has been silent on the disruptive industrial action being planned by their union mates which is going to double the time it takes to unload a ship and cause a huge backlog.
“Where is the Minister for Ports and Freight? Why isn’t she engaging with the sector? Why isn’t she advocating for rapid testing and why isn’t she telling the unions their actions are completely inappropriate while Victorians pull together to get through yet another lockdown?” Roma asks.
The Maritime Union of Australia says productivity is at a high and protected industrial action is a last resort to finalise an agreement that is almost 18 months past expiry.