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.
--
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LL:ART: WILLIAMSTOWN DOCKYARDS - DOING REITH'S DIRTY WORK
Communist Party of Australia Tue, 09 Nov 1999 21:29:39 +1100
