The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
May 29th, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
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P&O wish list
Horror of horrors
P&O's Maritime Union delegates who met in Sydney last week were expecting
the company to come the hard line in the initial stages of the current round
of waterfront enterprise agreement negotiations. Little did wharfies know
that the worst case scenarios that many had envisaged were about to be
multiplied by ten. P&O left no stone unturned in its horrendous proposals
for its stevedoring operations. The workers are outraged by P&O's demands
and have every right to be so!
Every condition of work is under attack: wages, rosters, hours, breaks,
annual leave, permanency, right to arbitration, union meetings... If P&O got
a fraction of what it is asking it would diminish the quality of life of
waterside workers and see them become slaves, serving night and day, the
commercial interests of P&O and its drive for the almighty dollar. The only
difference is that slaves cannot be sacked!
The agreements being proposed are based on a three tier arrangement whereby
there would be a national agreement (Part A), regional agreements (Part B)
and local agreements (Part C).
On all levels the degree of attacks upon worker's hard fought conditions is
staggering.
The core issue is the proposed clause in Part A of the agreement, whereby
P&O seeks to strengthen its position in relation to the introduction of
change within the workplace.
The company proposal would allow the employer to change work practice, job
description, salary, roster or work condition at any time, while denying
workers the right to dispute the changes or have them arbitrated by the
Commission or other outside body.
The Maritime Bulletin of the CPA described it as "the right to manage gone
mad!!!"
"There can be no agreement with such a dangerous clause in it. What, after
all, would be the point of an agreement", said the Bulletin.
The only hope an employer has of getting agreement on such a provision is to
lace the agreement with sweeteners that could be revoked at any time the
company desired.
Agreement to such preposterous claims would mean the end of bargaining
itself.
"The position must be clear -- NO CHANGES during the life of the agreement
except by agreement and approval of the workers and the union", said the
Maritime Bulletin.
The grievance procedure and the avoidance of disputes procedures clauses are
under attack with the aim of denying waterside workers access to
arbitration.
"There is no doubt whose interests these clauses serve", said the Bulletin.
It's certainly not the workers.
The company may as well have presented a document that read: "You will do
what you are told and we will pay you what we want!"
Currently there are seven-hour minimums on shifts, reflecting a 35-hour
week. The minimum payment for casuals, in particular, is seven hours.
P&O wants to move to a four-hour minimum, which would result in a severe
erosion of the earnings of the most exploited sectors of the workforce,
indeed of all the workers.
Theft of holidays
P&O, being such a caring employer is seeking to reduce annual leave.
It wants annual leave to be offered in hours, not weeks. Currently waterside
workers accrue five weeks annual leave per year.
Some cunning industrial relations bureaucrat in an ivory tower somewhere,
probably earning a six-figure salary, has come up with this hours idea,
which in the case of a worker on a 12-hour shift arrangement, could mean
only two weeks annual leave.
Annual leave is a hard won condition. It is not for sale.
P&O is also trying to halve the number of stopwork meetings currently agreed
to from four to two.
Wage freezes and higher productivity
"Wage rises must be based upon the cost of living. There is no alternative
for workers who are struggling to keep up with the day to day grind of
paying mortgages and bills and surviving often on inadequate remuneration
for the tasks they perform", the Bulletin said.
Recent agreements have seen straight pay rises often around four per cent.
"This figure in itself is totally inadequate considering the impact that
developments such as the GST have had on people and their standard of
living.
"Costello's recent budget forecasted inflation annually at around at least
three percent. The flow-on of such inflation to most necessities of life
makes a decent pay rise for workers essential."
P&O's aim is to reward wharfies for past increases in productivity with a
six-month wage freeze. After the six months wharfies would have the
opportunity to earn a 12 percent pay rise over the remaining life of the
agreement.
There is one catch. These pay rises would be based entirely upon a sliding
scale of productivity targets. If waterside workers increase productivity to
the highest levels over the life of the agreement, a four percent annual
increase is possible.
Lower rises in productivity mean considerably less.
If productivity does not rise, even if it is due to outdated and old
machinery; breakdowns, incompetent planning, supervision or management; or a
raft of reasons that are entirely beyond the control of workers, then they
get no increase whatsoever.
"This is a joke! No it is beyond a joke. It is entirely unacceptable and
like many of P&O's desired erosions of our standard of living must be
rejected outright", the Maritime Bulletin exclaimed.
Permanent irregular employees
Another grand plan of the company is to create another category of labour:
Permanent Irregular Employees (PIE's). This economy class permanent would be
totally irregular with no regulated time off. In ports where a roster system
operates PIEs could be used to erode conditions of other permanent
employees.
Both the Port Botany and White Bay/Glebe Island Committees of the Maritime
Union of Australia (MUA) have firmly rejected this concept and cite the
dangers of eroding conditions and creating divisions within the workforce as
their main reasons.
Part A of the agreement is littered with other attacks upon waterside
workers and their union.
The revelation of the company's position for the national agreement (Part A)
was a shock. But when the grand plan for the local (Part C) and regional
(Part B) aspects of the document was revealed, the jaws of all delegates hit
the floor.
Most had never witnessed such a full-scale assault on every little piece of
their working lives. The company proposed the complete subjugation of
workers to the interests of P&O and its pursuit of greater profits.
The regional aspect of the agreements is actually not a big document. The
devil is certainly in the detail but it is also in the omissions.
An important part of the regional document is the ability for the bosses to
transfer workers to other regional ports. The NSW region encompasses Port
Botany, White Bay and Glebe Island (more on this later), Newcastle and Port
Kembla.
The employer wants the ability to be able to transfer "all employees"
between these different areas - some hundreds of kilometres apart. No ground
rules have been provided, just open slather for bosses to dictate transfers.
"This concept must be opposed", the Bulletin warned.
Compulsory shift extensions
Not missing a trick, P&O also wants the right to force workers to agree to
compulsory extended hours when it suits P&O. Never mind family
responsibilities, let alone a social life!
"... keeping you at work for longer than the designated period should be of
a voluntary nature", said the Maritime Bulletin.
Flexibility is already a part of life at P&O. Past concessions on the part
of workers have given P&O 19 start times. Now it is seeking more variations
to the current arrangement.
The most notable is 12-hour midnight shifts where, at least at White Bay and
Glebe Island, the maximum is nine.
They are also seeking to reduce the period between shifts to eight hours
from nine.
Twelve-hour midnights must be opposed. The White Bay/Glebe Island Committee
of the MUA is firmly committed to the eradication of 12 hour shifts
altogether.
Nothing sacred
Not even smokos are spared the knife. P&O hopes to reduce them by
eliminating walking and washing time.
Some stevedoring berths are a considerable distance from the amenities room.
Without walking time and with no means of transport provided, some breaks
would be reduced to around five minutes or less, considering the fact that
to line up for canteens in various areas can take a good portion of the
break anyway.
They are also seeking to reduce the breaks on a nine or ten hour shift to
two from three.
P&O wants the capacity and the right to contact any employee at any time of
the day or night for allocation to work. They also want to end the long
established practice of the weekend pickup.
The weekend pickup is the only time a wharfie in a Bulk and General area has
more than 24 hours notice of the next shift they will work. Too long
according to P&O.
They also want the ability, having once allocated workers to an evening or
midnight shift at 5pm, to get workers to ring at 8am to confirm the pickup
and see whether or not it has been cancelled or varied in any way. Under
these arrangements there is even less ability than at present to arrange
family or home life in any way.
"It is outrageous", Maritime Bulletin protested.
The company wants to make a buck out of the mooring/unmooring business. If
accepted this would entail wharfies stealing the area of work of union
comrades in the lines area.
" Linesmen's work is linesmen work and no agreement should be adopted with
any reference to mooring or unmooring", said the Bulletin.
In a display of the most amazing arrogance, while tossing a bone to the
union, the company accepted that the site union committees have a right to a
monthly meeting.
However, it cannot resist an attack on the White Bay/Glebe Island Union
Committee. The company has determined they will separate White Bay and Glebe
Island into two separate and distinct workforces.
They have then come up with the insulting and obscene claim that they will
not negotiate with the current White Bay Glebe Island Union Committee on any
matter to do with Glebe Island even though both areas are a single workforce
and the committee has been democratically elected by all the members.
Every single condition of work and pay is under attack. At White Bay and
Glebe Island P&O wants to increase working hours by 280 annually. Pay cuts
to many traditional day work areas are also being put forward.
No new permanent jobs
The company is not even giving consideration to the filling of any new
permanent jobs. They want to throw a few PIEs at the workers.
"The loss of any working condition is not on, let alone the loss of them
all", said the Maritime Bulletin.
The important principle that there will be no agreement on a national basis
while any particular area is suffering or being attacked or singled out by
the employer is of great importance when considering the nature of a
national agreement.
The Maritime Bulletin stands by the important principle that, "No agreement
can be reached unless it is endorsed by ALL ports".
How much of the company's claims are ambit is yet to be seen as the local
negotiations are not yet in full swing. It is painfully obvious that the
boss is using the current reactionary political climate to steal from the
workers what has been gained over many generations.
"If their position is genuine then it is becoming clear that there will not
be any other option available to the workers and the union but to use
industrial action to attempt to instill a bit of common sense and reality
into the skulls of P&O", warns the Bulletin.
P&O's demands also illustrate the dangers of enterprise bargaining as a
replacement to a centralised award system.
Under the old award system, the hard won conditions of the past remained,
and negotiations centred around specific demands on specific issues. E.g. if
the unions put in a claim for a five percent wage rise or a shorter working
week, then those claims were fought out, the other conditions in the award
continued as before.
Likewise if the employer made a claim to increase compulsory overtime, that
was the only issue being fought out.
Under enterprise bargaining everything is up for grabs every time a new
agreement is negotiated. Every gain of the past could be on the line and
have to be fought for every three years.
As the saying goes, "If you don't fight you lose". The MUA have a big fight
ahead of them, one that should be of concern to all workers and trade
unions.
P&O is shaping up to be another Patrick Stevedores, paving the way for other
employers to follow.
On the other hand, a fighting MUA with the backing of other unions could
pave the way for the rebuilding of a strong, militant union movement.
The Maritime Bulletin may be viewed on the Maritime Branch website:
www.geocities.com/cpamaritime
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