SHIPPING Australia’s absurd, evidence-free claims about waterfront bargaining are just their latest hysterical and destructive attempt to exploit COVID anxiety in the community for their blatant self interest.
None of the limited, legal forms of industrial action undertaken by wharfies are capable of causing the massive delays claimed without evidence by Shipping Australia.
At Patrick’s Port Botany terminal there has been a single four-hour work stoppage. Other actions have been restricted to bans on overtime and upgrading to higher positions.
Likewise, Hutchison Ports Australia’s response to workers taking protected industrial action in the form of a go slow has been to dock their pay 30%, which is the company’s own estimate of the impact of this action on productivity.
Compare these limited forms of industrial actions to some of the significant delays caused by corporate mismanagement at Port Botany and the root cause of any delays quickly becomes apparent.
Patrick has also implemented a new Terminal Operating System in recent weeks. Problems with the implementation of this system have caused significant delays, with IT specialists still on site attempting to fix it.
A couple months earlier, the Patrick terminal came to a standstill for 48-hours after construction work cut a substation power cable.
None of these substantial interruptions to operations were the result of actions by wharfies or the MUA.