Industrial action by two maritime unions has brought shipping movements to a halt in Sydney Harbour and Port Botany in the middle of the Christmas cargo rush.
The Australian Maritime Officers Union will begin an indefinite strike at 8am today, followed by a 24-hour strike on Friday by the Maritime Union of Australia. The strikes follow several days of industrial action last week.
Both unions are battling tugboat operator Adsteam Marine. The AMOU strike is over a a new enterprise bargaining agreement, while the MUA opposes Adsteam’s proposals to cut the number of deckhands on tugboats from two to one.
According to the Sydney Port Authority figures, the strikes will affect 44 movements of vessels over the next three days, including container ships, bulk carriers, general cargo carriers and a vehicle carrier.
The authority would not comment last night but industry sources say it will refuse access to the harbour without tugboats because of safety worries.
A spokesman for the MUA, Mr Robert Coombs, said the action was also affecting the ports at Newcastle and Port Kembla.
’’The AMOU has a wage claim which I can’t comment on, and we have a manning dispute over Adsteam’s proposal to reduce the number of deckhands on tugs,’’ Mr Coombs said.
’’ Adsteam wants to cut deckhands by 50 per cent, from two to one, but are not able to offer a technical or operational reason for the proposal. There is no new technology offered as part of the proposal but there are massive safety issues to consider.’’
The AMOU could not be contacted for comment last night. Neither of the stevedoring firms, Patricks and CTAL, would comment last night but they are understood to be frustrated by the delays.
Adsteam’s chief executive, Mr Clay Frederick, did not return telephone calls last night but has defended the tugboat manning proposal, claiming Australian ports use bigger crews than corresponding ports overseas.
The company has proposed tug engineers should do the deckhands job. He told the Newcastle Herald this week: ’’Each tug carries an engineer who basically turns the engines on at the start of each job and shuts them down at the end. We are more or less carrying them on each trip.’’
Mr Frederick claimed the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers had agreed its members could act as deckhands
