Ongoing industrial disputes in Australia’s ports are worrying the country’s shipping industry, with further potential strikes coming at a particularly bad time for the country’s export sector.
A long-running pay dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and company Patrick Stevedores has prompted the company’s workers to strike in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Fremantle and Illawarra container ports over the past few weeks.
The strikes are expected to affect the movement of around 18,000 containers, according to local media.
“Strikes couldn’t come at a worse time with Japan affected by natural disasters and the high Australian dollar which also impacts on trade,” Shipping Australia’s chief executive Llew Russell told Port Strategy.
“It’s disappointing because we don’t see that they have exhausted the negotiation process. We certainly would hope strikes could be avoided.”
Negotiations between the MUA and Patrick Stevedores appear to have broken down.
Patricks has said the union’s proposed pay increased would increase the company’s labour costs by 80 per cent over three years, a claim which the union said is “total rubbish”.
The MUA’s assistant national secretary Warren Smith told The Australian the union had initially proposed three 10 per cent pay rises over three years, but had reduced that to three 6 per cent pay rises over three years.
Patrick said it had instead offered a 4-4.5 per cent pay rise in exchange for productivity increases.
