Australia’s Workplace Relations Minister has resisted calls to intervene in a maritime industrial dispute as the two-month-long impasse enters another day of strikes that employer groups say is costing the economy $1 million a day. Yesterday’s strike follows a weekend walk-off by members of the Maritime Union of Australia, which is at loggerheads with shipping operator Farstad Shipping, which services remote oil and gas rigs off Bass Strait and WA’s North-West Shelf. Employer groups are calling for arbitration.
