The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/9906/05/text/national11.html MUA's radical move wins ire of rival union Date: 05/06/99 By HELEN TRINCA, Workplace writer The Maritime Union of Australia has won its first industrial agreement under a radical approach to bargaining which could prove a template for unions moving to cover non-union workers. But its rival for membership among gas and oil workers in Bass Strait, the Australian Workers' Union, is less than impressed with the MUA's creative approach to organised labour. The agreement was negotiated by a shelf company set up by the MUA as an agent for enterprise bargaining for about 80 workers on Esso oil and gas platforms. The union's national industrial officer, Ms Julie-Anne Houlton, who ran the case, believes it shows the potential for unions to use the Workplace Relations Act to turn an "anti-union stance on its head". "It has the capacity to revitalise the union movement and shows that we can be sophisticated and responsible," she said yesterday. The MUA is barred under its eligibility rules from covering the Esso workers, who have traditionally been covered by the AWU. When the workers wanted the MUA to represent them, so disillusioned had they become with the AWU, Esso - and the rules - said no. The solution was for the MUA to set up MUA HTS (which stands for Here To Stay, the catchcry during the Patrick dispute), to allow Ms Houlton to sidestep the ban and negotiate the deal for the men, who all signed individual service agreements with the shelf company. The company has MUA national secretary Mr John Coombs as the sole director, but legally is a separate entity from the union. The company will continue to represent the members in day-to-day work issues and disputes - even though the MUA still does not have jurisdiction. It is an arrangement that so upset the AWU when it was revealed last year it was referred to the ACTU as a case of "poaching" workers from another union. This was despite the fact most of the 80 workers had left the AWU. The AWU's Victorian State secretary, Mr Bill Shorten, told the Herald the AWU would not criticise the MUA publicly. "We don't believe the trade union movement is served by competitive trade unionism," he said. "But we are not going to bag the workers down there." Anger among other unions about the case is likely to make them wary of adopting it as a method of increasing coverage of unrepresented workers. But Ms Houlton said the corporate structure was designed as an interim measure to fill a gap while the MUA pursued a rule change to allow it to represent the members. She pointed out that unions could not use the corporate technique unless workers wanted to be represented by them. In the case before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Esso argued the MUA HTS could only be a bargaining agent for negotiating the new-style individual contracts or Australian Workplace Agreements. But it was forced to concede, and the workers wound up with a conventional collective agreement. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- 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
