MUA on strike against Patrick, April 2011. Patrick and the MUA have been at loggerheads for almost eight months over pay and conditions.
Dock workers at Australia’s three major ports went on a 24-hour walkout Saturday after talks stalled over a protracted wages and conditions dispute, crippling about one-quarter of the nation’s freight.
A second strike was to begin on Monday in Fremantle, on Australia’s resources-rich west coast.
“It’s about our conditions of work, about having a safe workplace, and about having a career,” said Kevin Bracken, Victoria state secretary of the MUA.
“In the bulk and general business, 60 per cent of the workers are casually employed with no annual leave, no holidays, no long-service leave, no guarantee that they are going to work there ever again,” he told ABC radio.