MUA Picket Line At Port Kembla

MUA MEDIA RELEASE 13 DEC 2011

Management at POAGS Stevedores are taking reckless safety risks on the waterfront through the use of union-busting scab labour at Port Kembla.

Overnight, the company took the dramatic step of helicoptering in scab workers - including companyaccounts and industrial relations managers - into Port Kembla in a cynical attempt to undercut industrial action by locking out 130 MUA stevedores.

MUA picket Port Kembla

The non-union employees were given a scant 20 minute induction before beginning a 12 hourshift on the wharves, endangering both themselves and those around them.

MUA Assistant Secretary, Warren Smith said POAGS' latest gamble with safety reinforced the company's poor record.

"Last year two POAGS employees died at work but rather than address the MUA's concernsabout safety, the company is resorting to 20 minute inductions for scab stevedores," Mr Smith said.

"The MUAwill not back down from its campaign to ensure our members work in safe conditions where their lives and livelihoods are not threatened.

MUA Southern NSW Branch Secretary Garry Keane said safety would not be compromised.

"Rather than bargaining in good faith, POAGS is declaring war on its workforce and in the process, recklessly endangering safety on the waterfront," Mr Keane said.

Mr Keane said the Port Kembla POAGS stevedores are the lowest paid in the country, despite one third of the company's profits coming out of the Illawarra port.

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POAGS has prevented wharfies from entering its sites at Fremantle and Bunbury, claiming it is unsafe to continue operating while the work bans are in place.

POAGS and the Maritime Union of Australia are negotiating a new enterprise agreement. Employees are seeking an 18 per cent pay rise over three years, but the company has offered a 12 per cent increase.

POAGS was formerly known as P&O Ports.

The company is chaired by Chris Corrigan, who was in charge of Patrick Corporation during the 1998 waterfront dispute.