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Issue No. 315 | 14 July 2006 |
Give Truth A Chance
Interview: The Month Of Living Dangerously Unions: Staying Mum Economics: Precious Metals Industrial: The Cold 100 History: The Vinegar Hill Mob Legal: Free Agents Politics: Under The Influence International: How Swede It Was Review: Keating's Men Slam Dance on Howard
Training Minister Gives Himself an A
The Soapbox Politics The Locker Room
Howard vs World Marching Orders Tough as ABC
Labor Council of NSW |
News Jail or Jobs - Seamen Choose
The Stolt Australia was tied up in Hobart for six days as crew protested plans for the mass sacking of Australians and their replacement by Filipinos earning barely $400 a month. Stolt won back-to-work orders in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that exposed MUA members to fines of $6000 a day and possible 12-month prison terms under John Howard's draconian workplace regime. But the vessel only sailed, with its cargo of sulphuric acid, after Stolt agreed to open its books to the MUA and investigate the replacement of the Stolt Australia with another Australian-crewed vessel. One shift of the 18-strong crew remained inside the Zinifex smelter while members of a second shift chained themselves outside the gate. During negotiations, both parties agreed the Stolt Australia was unsuitable for coastal duties. The dispute broke when Stolt revealed it would operate the vessel under a flag of Caribbean tax haven, the Cayman Islands, with low-wage labour. MUA Tasmanian secretary, Mike Wickham, said crew saw every day alongside as a victory. "They saw this as an opportunity to make it widely known that the IR laws stank and that they were prepared to something about them," Wickham said. "The MOU is a moral victory for the crew. They were standing up for the rights and conditions of all workers in this country." Australian shipping has been decimated since the Howard Government encouraged companies to go offshore in search of cheap, unskilled labour. The possibility of an alternative, Australian-crewed tanker is seen as a holding measure in that battle. The ACTU and International Transport Workers Federation (ICFTU) supported the MUA in negotiations with the company.
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