Williamstown Dockyards - Doing Reith's dirty work A recent article in the "Business Review Weekly" devoted two full pages to what it labelled the "mindless union militancy" at the Williamstown Dockyards (a shipbuilding yard in Melbourne making frigates for the Defence Forces). by Rohan Gowland The article was scathing of "illegal strike action" over the past eight months on a range of issues and which the "BRW" complained was "putting the operation at risk". The employer, Tenix, is a contractor to the Defence Forces, who privatised their ship building in the late 1980s. The disputes at Williamstown have been nothing extraordinary: terms of employment, health and safety, contracting out. What appears most notable about it is how Tenix have applied the Federal Government's anti-union Code of Practice in an apparent bid to take on the union. The Code - which was originally targeted at the construction industry - rewards employers who have contracts with the Government if they take an aggressive line to implement anti-union workplace reforms. The Government promises to extend their contracts and waive any fines for failure to meet deadlines. It is intended as a green light for employers to get into full-on confrontation with unions. Tenix last month took out a Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) order against the union, restraining it from taking industrial action. More importantly, Tenix took the union to the IRC to get an "excusable delay" because it claimed industrial action had delayed its contract with the Federal Government. The Human Resources Director of Tenix, John Varnum, was adamant that there was no ulterior motive: "There's a perception in the yard and among the unions that we are being instructed by the Government. But that's not the case. Our instructions are purely what's in the contract. We're under no political pressure". Of course not. Of course, that wouldn't be affected by the fact that Tenix's sole client is the Federal Government, so it is in their interest to do what their client asks of them or at least what they "think" their client expects them to do. Varnum, apart from being a company man, is part of the NSW Right of the ALP. He is an ex-Secretary of the Transport Workers' Union and has served on the New South Wales IRC. One of the issues for Varnum and other Tenix management is that they do not like the new leadership of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), which they complain is too militant. Provocation It started when management put over 200 people on limited tenure employment. They would be contracted to receive a maximum of 364 days employment - not 365, because that would entitle them to protection against unfair dismissal. The contract could then be renewed, at the company's discretion, for another 364 days. Those 200 workers didn't cop it and the bulk of the existing full-time workforce didn't cop it either and protracted industrial action followed. Since then, there has been a range of smaller separate disputes or "skirmishes". For example, there was a legionella outbreak. Mr Nelson said the company knew about it a week prior to any of the employees. It even went ahead with the launch of a ship which was attended by a large crowd of people who were put at risk. When the workers found out about the outbreak, they were so enraged at the company's attitude they walked off the job for four days. Underlying all of these "skirmishes" is an aggressive line adopted by management, such as in their refusal to allow shop stewards to have the paid time off to do union work. Management has also restricted their movement around the site. They've told shop stewards they can only do union work from seven in the morning until eight in the morning and can't have time off for matters unrelated to the workplace. "What they've tried to do is keep that enterprise focus, which is something that's been a product of enterprise bargaining where people don't look outside the fence line of where they're employed. "We're having WorkCover rallies down here, anti-Second Wave rallies, and they [management] don't want them to go", said Mr Nelson. Dispute over disputes According to the "BRW", a major issue for the employers was "the need for the union to adhere to the dispute-resolution clauses in the enterprise agreement". The union says, "It's a big issue for them because if you follow the disputes procedures, you can never ever take industrial action", instead the dispute has to go straight to the Commission. "In the past, they've been able to hold that over the workers. Where they've had tame shop stewards, and when there's been a call to action, the stewards have responded `No, we have to follow a certain procedure'", said Mr Nelson. "But sometimes an issue requires immediate action, such as the legionella issue - that could've taken seven days to sort out, meanwhile people are being exposed to a potentially life-threatening bacteria." Bloody-minded health and safety A few months ago they were re-fuelling a ship on one side of the pier from a fuel tanker, at the same time as doing welding work on the pier. They had the fire service and fire alarm systems to the pier shut down at the time. Mr Nelson said, "all [the company] is concerned about is product and a very scant regard for safety. But the union doesn't consider health and safety in the shipyards as something to be taken lightly. "The shipyards move compartments of ships around that weigh 360-390 tonnes. ``We've had people trapped in them ... we've had people working in the funnel of the ship and they've started the ship up, we've had people sitting on the shafts working and someone has started up the engines.'' "These are some of the issues sparking disputes which the "BRW" labels as ``mindless'' and "union bloody-mindedness". There are still issues in dispute at Williamstown. The white-collar workers are now involved in a "skirmish" over management's plans to outsource 260 jobs and contract out engineering. They've even sacked the gardener. "That'll make them build ships a lot quicker! That must've been the problem, the roses weren't flowering on time!", said Mr Nelson. Despite the company's approach and the many issues facing the workers in the past eight months, Mr Nelson says that Tenix's "concerns" about not meeting deadlines are unwarranted. He said the shipyards are no more behind than they were before the new AMWU leadership was elected. Mr Nelson is sceptical about the company's "concern" about deadlines. Tenix seems far more "concerned" with the Federal Government's political industrial agenda to weaken trade union power in the workplace. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: WILLIAMSTOWN DOCKYARDS - DOING REITH'S DIRTY WORK
Communist Party of Australia Tue, 09 Nov 1999 21:29:39 +1100