Monday 29th of April 2024
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by the shorten and curlies...

by the shorten and curlies...

Stevedoring company POAGS and the Maritime Union of Australia have agreed to suspend all industrial action after an intervention by new Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.

POAGS had locked out around 120 workers at its Bunbury and Fremantle operations after the union took industrial action.

But both parties have agreed to return to the negotiating table after Mr Shorten intervened on his first day in the job.

A Fair Work Australia-appointed mediator will now oversee the negotiations.

The Maritime Union is demanding an 18 per cent wage increase and improved safety conditions for workers.

POAGS has offered workers a 12 per cent pay increase over three years.

The stevedoring firm issued a statement saying it expects its port operations to resume tomorrow.

A spokesman from the Bunbury port says it will take about 36 hours to clear the backlog.

POAGS managing director Don Smithwick says the company cannot afford the demands proposed by the union and already its Fremantle operation is running at a loss.

"We're talking about a relatively small company that is trying to provide a service to its customers and is being subjected to some industrial action that really, I think, is unprecedented and with the log of claims that we've received, it's just unaffordable," he said.

Mr Smithwick earlier said he would be happy for the Government to intervene.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/wharfie-industrial-action-ended/3731676

 

Meanwhile earlier:

The unions say the dispute highlights an aggressive push by employers to undermine the Fair Work Act and the Federal Government, and both sides are blaming each other for the failure of negotiations.

POAGS head Chris Corrigan was also in charge of Patrick Corporation during the 1998 waterfront dispute, and Mr Shorten admits it is a sensitive issue.

"Obviously because it's the wharves and because of the history between Chris Corrigan and the unions, there's a special sensitivity that seems to come," he said.

"But whether or not this is a dispute capable of resolution or whether or not it's a dispute forcing hundreds of days of protracted argument, I don't know."

The new minister says POAGS has taken a big step to lock workers out.

"Locking people out is a big step, it's an extreme step," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/shorten-says-wharfie-lockout-is-extreme/3730912

shit floats...

Chris Cain, MUA secretary in WA, says the union wants workers at the different ports around Australia to be paid the same, but they say it is not all about money.

"We want to go to work. We want to make sure we go home to our loved ones safely," he said.

"We're saying we put in a moderate claim of 5 per cent. We're saying that we want a safety facilitator because this mob, POAGS, have got the worst safety record in the country."

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the industrial dispute is a sign the Government's Fair Work laws have given too much power to union bosses.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/wharfie-industrial-action-ended/3731676

 

I know that many a good people would have lost their jobs would it not be for being in a union... There is a short quip in some industries where workers are doing a great job while middle management is mostly incompetent: "shit floats"...

This means that the more useless people are at their job, the more they climb over people to stay afloat and the more they are promoted up to middle management because of this cunning ability to "float"... There, they make life a misery for the other workers — the good ones — whom these middle managers don't like because they know of their incompetence ... Nothing new.

Some middle managers are okay though...