Sacked for Being Australian
More than a dozen police boarded the CSL Melbourne in Newcastle, Australia, on Friday to remove five crew members protesting their sacking by Pacific Aluminium.
This is the second time in less than a month where Australian seafarers have been forcibly removed from vessels, after five crew on board the MV Portland were woken by up 30 security guards at around 1am on January 13 and marched off the vessel.
Some of the vessels’ crewmembers have now been wearing t-shirts printed with the slogan: “Sacked for being Australian.”
The removal of the crew on the CSL Melbourne follows the decision by management earlier this week to put locks on the fridges and remove all fresh food from the ship.
The CSL Melbourne has been running alumina between Newcastle and Gladstone for the past five years, but these jobs will go after the company received a temporary license from the federal government.
Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith said Pacific Aluminium is exploiting coastal trading laws to simply replace Australian seafarers with exploited foreign seafarers on as little as $2/hr, aided and abetted by the Turnbull government’s administration of the licensing system.
“Today’s removal of the crew is an absolute outrage. No worker in this country is safe now. These blokes have been removed by the state from their rightful place of work and replaced with workers who earn as little as $2 an hour,” Smith said.
“They were doing nothing more than standing up for their jobs and their right to work in an Australian industry with decent pay and conditions.
“We have cabotage laws which cover trade through domestic ports and the use of both Australian-flagged and Australian-crewed vessels. The Senate voted in November to retain these laws yet the government has again pushed ahead with the issuing of another temporary license.”
MUA Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray said the crew from the MV Portland had met with around 20 MPs and Senators in Canberra this week to explain their plight, as well as appearing at a Senate inquiry into flag-of-convenience shipping.
“The crew received a very sympathetic hearing from a range of ALP, Greens and Senate crossbenchers,” Bray said.
“This all makes for a very interesting set of hearings at Senate Estimates next week, and there are plenty of senators itching to go with questions about how a government can replace Australian workers with exploited foreign labor in what are effectively overnight raids.”
The Turnbull government’s moves to deregulate Australian shipping raise serious concerns on national security, fuel security, jobs and skills and protection of the environment, said the MUA in a statement. “Australian crews are among the most highly-trained in the world and all have high-level security screening. As a result, Australian-flagged ships are demonstrably safer than flag-of-convenience shipping and have a strong record in protecting our pristine coastline.”
The MUA held a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday to protest the Turnbull government decision to grant temporary licenses to replace the vessels.
Opposition Transport spokesman Anthony Albanese from the ALP addressed the rally saying: “Malcolm Turnbull should today meet Australian shipping workers protesting outside Parliament to explain why he has cleared the way for them to be sacked and replaced by foreign crews earning Third World wages.
“In recent months the government has issued the owners of the MV Portland and the CSL Melbourne with permits allowing them to order their Australian crews to sail the vessels to Singapore, where they will be sacked and replaced by foreign workers.
“This attempt to undermine Australian shipping comes despite November’s Senate rejection of Mr Turnbull’s WorkChoices on Water legislation, which would have allowed foreign-flagged vessels paying foreign wage rates to undercut Australian shipping companies, which are required to pay Australian level wages.
“Undeterred by the will of the Parliament, Mr Turnbull is now abusing a provision of existing law that allows for the issuance of permits for temporary use of foreign crews where no Australian crews are available.
“It is extraordinary that any Australian government would actually facilitate Australians being sacked because they are paid Australian wage rates, and it is unacceptable that an Australian government would undermine the national interest by deliberately trying to undermine Australian industry.”
MV Portland crew member Zac Kinzett said getting rid of domestic shipping company is not in the national interest.
“The work hasn’t dried up. Alcoa intends to continue this trade on foreign-flagged ships with a foreign crew being paid as little as $2-an-hour, supported by the Turnbull government which wants to open up the Australian coast to cheap, nasty, risky shipping,” he said.
“The Turnbull Government needs to be reminded that Australian jobs are important – me and my fellow workers have families, kids, mortgages and bills to pay. Our dispute is about the right for Australians to work in their own country and not be replaced by foreign-crewed vessels paying as little as $2 an hour.
“Ultimately, we are just Australian workers in an Australian industry … I am proud to be Australian, but what happened to the crew of the MV Portland and now the CSL Melbourne is un-Australian.”
Crew member Warren Hopkins said workers had to complete 16 weeks at the Australian Maritime College and 36 weeks of sea time in order to receive the Integrated Ratings ticket.
This training generally takes around two years to complete.
Hopkins said Australian seafarers are some of the best in the world and shouldn’t be expected to compete with exploited foreign crews of flag of convenience vessels.
“There’s no way we can compete with $2/hr and then go home and pay the electricity bill,” Hopkins said.
He added that Alcoa was the recipient of a subsidy from the Victorian State Government that runs into tens of millions of dollars a year. It might even be $100 million, but no-one knows as the numbers aren’t made public.
Alcoa Takes Action
At the time of the removal of the MV Portland crew, Alcoa issued a statement saying it had taken decisive action. “Alcoa has been extremely tolerant and given the MUA and its members every opportunity to stop their illegal industrial action,” said Alcoa of Australia Managing Director Michael Parker.
“Instead, the MUA has held our ship hostage for two months; disrupting the lives of other crew members, disrupting operations at the Port of Portland, and threatening the Portland community with the loss of cruise ship visits.
“The MUA acted as if it was above the law, defying Fair Work Commission and Federal Court rulings; leaving the ship managers with no option but to replace the MUA crew – with the full support of Alcoa.”
The MV Portland is owned by Alcoa Portland Aluminium Pty Ltd which holds a contract with ASP Ship Management Pty Ltd (ASP) to operate the vessel. The crew of the MV Portland are employees of ASP Ship Management.
With the price of aluminium at levels not seen since the global financial crisis, the global aluminium industry, and in particular aluminium smelters, are under considerable pressure, with many running at a loss, said Alcoa in the statement.
In Australia, Alcoa’s focus is on reducing operating costs and improving productivity to help all our facilities remain internationally competitive, both now and into the future. Alcoa Inc announced on November 2, 2015, it would idle three smelters in the United States, and on Thursday January 7, 2016, that another smelter in the U.S. will be closed.
One of the many cost saving measures being taken at Portland Aluminium smelter is to sell the 27 year old MV Portland in an attempt to help protect approximately 700 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs associated with the smelter.
The savings to the smelter are not insignificant – more than $6 million per year.
The MV Portland is near the end of its operating life and is scheduled for a statutory dry-dock in mid-January 2017. The cost to keep it operational is expected to be in the $millions.
Alcoa chose to sell the vessel and replace it with a more cost efficient method of delivery of alumina from Western Australia to the Portland Aluminium smelter.
The MV Portland is crewed by ASP. There are approximately 40 people in the total crew pool, with 19 on the vessel at any one time, including seven MUA members. Alcoa has been advised that two of the MUA crew members live in Portland.