Port lockout threatens Christmas chaos
Financial Review
Nov 14, 2022
An indefinite lockout of critical port workers in response to damaging strikes is set to grind the country’s major ports to a halt, threatening the supply of consumer goods, supermarket produce and farm exports.
Tug boat giant Svitzer, whose services are critical to hauling container ships into and out of ports, notified 582 striking workers across the country it will bar them working from Friday as a way to short-circuit a lengthy industrial dispute.
The lockout will mean no shipping vessels will be towed into or out of 17 ports serviced by Svitzer from Friday in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
Major stevedores have warned the lockout will bring their terminals to a standstill, raising the prospect of third parties or the federal government intervening in the Fair Work Commission to stop the industrial action due to the threat to the economy.
The port shutdown would come just six weeks before Christmas and as farmers are preparing to harvest winter crops for the export market.
Patrick chief executive Michael Jovicic said Svitzer’s lockout would disrupt the handling of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers coming into its terminals each day or about 40 per cent of all containerised freight into and out of Australia.
“Industrial action that prevents vessels arriving and departing our terminals will quickly bring our terminals to a standstill,” Mr Jovicic said.
“We strongly urge for the two parties to come to a sensible and sustainable resolution that supports the needs of the Australian economy.”
‘Union thuggery’
DP World, which has reported significant disruption from tugboat stoppages in the past fortnight, said Svitzer provided towage services to almost 70 per cent of its vessels around the country.
NSW Transport Minister David Elliott flagged potential intervention by the state government and said he would meet with Svitzer on Tuesday about the dispute.
“The NSW government is committed to providing whatever support necessary to those affected by this union thuggery,” he said.
“Our supply chains and international trade are the economic lifeblood of this state and this action by the combined maritime unions will threaten to prolong our economic recovery by months, if not years.”
Tugboat crews have taken more than 250 instances of protected action at Svitzer since October 20, totalling almost 2000 hours of stoppages, and maritime unions are notifying fresh actions almost daily.
Workers are protesting against Svitzer’s push to remove union restrictions that the company says put it at a disadvantage to competitors and have resulted in it exiting three ports and retrenching 130 workers between 2020 and 2021.
Svitzer managing director Nicolaj Noes said “we are at a point where we see no other option but to respond to the damaging industrial action under way by the unions”.
“Svitzer has an obligation to serve its customers safely, reliably and efficiently and to ensure imports and exports, and our nation’s trade and supply chains run without disruption,” he said.
“The inability to reach a new enterprise agreement and the high number of protected industrial actions prevent us from doing so.”
The company has been bargaining with unions for a new agreement since September 2019 and has held 75 bargaining meetings, but none since October 20.
While industrial action has been going on for years, unions have ramped up stoppages in the past month. The actions include a series of four-hour to 24-hour strikes, overtime bans and a ban on servicing Maersk ships.
A Svitzer tugboat at work. The company has been forced to close operations in three Australian ports.
A minimum of three crew are required to operate a tugboat, meaning even minor industrial action can have an outsized effect on the port sector.
Maritime Union of Australia national assistant secretary Jamie Newlyn accused Svitzer, which is owned by Maersk, of triggering a “massive nationwide industrial conflict”.
“Locking out their workers will wreck Australia’s productivity, prevent consumer goods and bulk commodities being loaded or discharged at major ports like Botany, Kembla, Melbourne, Newcastle and Brisbane, and every Australian business and consumer will now suffer from this delinquent company’s selfish and pigheaded conduct,” Mr Newlyn said.
“Svitzer will bring their reputation down to the level of Qantas in the eyes of the Australian community if they lock out their workforce while trying to ram through a massive pay cut.”
He accused Svitzer of amassing a war chest for its lockout by reaping huge profits during the pandemic while workers effectively were given a three-year wage freeze.
Another incentive for legislation
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the dispute was a “classic example” of why the Fair Work Commission needed greater arbitration powers, as proposed in the government’s industrial relations bill.
“We want disputes like this need to be resolved quickly and fairly – it’s in no one’s interests for them to drag on,” he said.
“The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill includes a provision that would allow the industrial umpire to step in and arbitrate when a dispute becomes intractable like this one has.
“This is simply another reason why getting this legislation through is urgent.
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