Hutchison port workers win a first semi-victory

Submitted by martin on 7 August, 2015 - 11:52 Author: Martin Thomas

Workers at the Hutchison port terminals in Brisbane and in Sydney, Australia, have won a first semi-victory with a 13 August Federal Court order on Hutchison to put 97 workers back on pay until 31 August pending negotiations.

On the evening of Thursday 13 August the Federal Court ordered reinstatement of 97 dockworkers whom Hutchison Ports summarily sacked with immediate effect at their Brisbane and Sydney container terminals by email at 11:30pm on Thursday 6 August.

It was a first semi-victory, but only that. In the small print the Federal Court decision says only that the 97 must be on payroll until 31 August, not that they get back into the workplaces. And it looks now as if Hutchison is trying to move out all the containers they have in the terminals so that they can shut down the business temporarily or sell it off. Resistance inside the terminals, and at the terminal gates, will continue.

Negotiations will follow, and the workers will have to struggle - with the support of their local officials in Brisbane - to ensure that they control the negotiations.

For more reports and pictures, see the Hutchison Ports - Stop Union Busting" Facebook page. Send messages of support to the Queensland MUA branch secretary, Bob Carnegie, bob.carnegie@mua.org.au.

Workers from other port operators; seafarers; members of the CFMEU construction and mining divisions, the Electrical Trades Union, United Voice, AMWU, and other unions; students, family members, and other supporters have joined the Hutchison workers at the community assembly outside the terminal gates since 7 August.

At 11:30pm on Thursday night 6 August Hutchison sacked half their Australian port workforce - 41 out of 84 in Brisbane, 53 out of 110 in Sydney - by email.

The workers were given a week's notice, but told not to come to work for that week.

Workers rostered on in Brisbane have been going in to work - cheered in each day by a union "guard of honour" as they march through the terminal gates carrying union flags - but insisting on safety and agreed terms before they will move cargo.

Hutchison, based in Hong Kong, are the world's biggest container terminal operator. They started up in Australia only in 2012. They have invested around $700 million to enter the Australian waterfront. They have long leases on their terminals in Brisbane and Sydney. They can't afford to walk away, and they have found they can't bulldoze the workforce.

In the run-up to the sackings, they gave away customers to DP World, deliberating running down their operation for a while. They replaced their local managers five months ago, and plans now are coming straight from their head office in Hong Kong.

What they have done makes sense only if their plan was to use a partial shutdown to break the union and restart on a low-cost basis.

They started up here only in 2012. Now they have linked up for a new plan with Filipino-based operator ICTSI, which is building a new terminal in Melbourne to open in December 2016.

As a global operator, Hutchison benchmarks its operations and its costs globally. They will want to reduce their costs in Australia to levels similar to those in Hong Kong.

In Hutchison’s home port, Hong Kong, dock workers struck for 40 days in 2013 to win a 9.8% pay rise and some improvements in conditions.

Employment had been outsourced to subcontractors. Pay hadn’t been increased for years. Shifts were up to 24 hours long. Breaks were scanty. Even a non-striker called up by the bosses to tell the media things weren’t so bad said: “In fact, we have short breaks of two to three minutes between vessels berthing at the terminals. Very rarely can I get 15 to 30 minutes. We also take turns to have meals so that we have around 15 to 20 minutes for mealtimes”.

Another benchmark for Hutchison will be the conditions which the Chinese company Cosco has imposed in Piraeus, Greece.

Cosco, which already runs two of three container quays at Piraeus on a 35 year contract. One of the measures recently forced on the Greek government by the capitalist Eurozone leaders is privatisation of the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki. Hutchison tried for Thessaloniki when there was previous talk of privatising it, in 2008.

Cosco’s contract at Piraeus has been successful for Cosco. Traffic has grown to three million teu; Piraeus is now Europe’s eighth busiest container port; Cosco plans a fourth quay to expand to six million teu. The quay not yet contracted out at Piraeus has strong union organisation. Its traffic has stagnated while Cosco’s quays thrive with no union recognition and no collective bargaining. Workers who tentatively formed a “workers’ committee” were sacked.

The Cosco workers are mostly employed by subcontractors or subcontractors of subcontractors. Most are on 24 hour call, with only a few hours’ notice of shifts, no overtime pay, and paid around €600 ($900) a month.

They have no meal breaks, not even toilet breaks: managers tell them to urinate into the sea or take cups with them. “Bouncers” patrol the quays.

Hutchison also runs Felixstowe, Britain's bigger container terminal.

Li Ka-Shing, chair of the board of Hutchison Whampoa, is the richest man in Asia, with wealth totalling US$32 billion.

Top: Hutchison port workers in Brisbane cheer their workmates starting the day shift in through the terminal gates on 14 August, the day after the Federal Court ordered reinstatement of the 97 workers sacked on 6 August. The other photo shows workers at the community assembly outside the gates a couple of days before. The anarchist flag and the University of Queensland Queer Collective placard were attached, together with many union and socialist banners, to the main marquee bearing the name of Nikki Boyd MP, a local Labor member of the state parliament.

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