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Vigilance Bulletin No. 39, November 3, 2008
1) DP World Botany EA 2008: Now it is crunch time DP World Botany EA 2008: Now it is crunch time MUA members at DP World Port Botany are going to vote on their new Enterprise Agreement (EA). Members have to ask themselves not just what the new EA contains - but assess if it’s the best deal we can get and if it meets our short and long-term needs. The proposed EA Nasties include the loss of First Aid positions to contractors; the general maintenance roster going from 33.6 hours a week to 35.48 (with a maximum of five voluntary redundancies); the loss of Rail Co-ordinator jobs; the Consolidated Allowance for casuals frozen for two years and upgrades for workthroughs halved. End the trade-odd mentality Given that we are all but at the end of the EA process, the best we can do is to fight to defend every job and condition that is now on the chopping block. We should be demanding no loss of first aid positions, no changes to maintenance rosters, no loss of rail co-ordinator jobs, full 5% a year rise for consolidated allowance, no change to current system for upgrades etc. while keeping the full pay rise and full back pay. For a free, open and democratic meeting Similarly with the EA vote, nothing short of an open and transparent vote should be tolerated (the voting procedure last time - with no count and not even a chance to vote no - was dubious to say the least). This bulletin calls for a voting procedure that must include the nomination of four returning officers from the floor (two to count the yes vote, two for the no) and the call for a division within the room between yes and no voters to make an accurate count easier. Vote NO and prepare to fight A no vote has to be backed up with action. This meeting has to move and vote for resolutions that empower the Branch and site committee to: The question of leadership The only way to really turn things around is with a leadership that is based on a militant program (like the one on the last page). If the current crop of officials are not prepared to fight to defend our jobs and conditions, the rank and file will have to fight to replace them with leaders that are up to the task. Don’t give up our First Aid Post without a fight Management at DP World Port Botany want to replace MUA labour in the First Aid Post with contractors. This is unacceptable. First Aid Posts operated by wharfies are a waterfront institution won through struggle and sacrifice - something we can never forget. First Aid Posts were first won in Brisbane with a militant campaign led by Ted Englart. “Red Ted” was the Brisbane Branch Secretary of the Watersider Workers’ Federation (WWF) for much of the 1940s and 50s and a well known Communist. First Aid Posts were soon won in other Australian ports. Sydney had a dispute over first aid in 1950. On January 3, wharfies walked off the job because no WWF first aid attendant had been picked up. By January 6 all of Sydney’s wharf labour were involved in the dispute. Work resumed on January 10 when an agreement was made that ensured this work went to WWF labour. Trading away our First Aid Posts not only makes a mockery of the struggles and sacrifices of the past. It also sets the precedent for companies to eliminate other First Aid Posts at other ports in the future. * * * * * *
Maritime Workers’ Journal, July / August 2008, p. 14. “The company wanted to contract first aid out”. On Wednesday September 24 the MUA Sydney Branch issued a leaflet entitled “Not in the union’s name”. The leaflet dissociated the Branch and the DP World Port Botany site committee from an attempt by union members to get all casuals to make themselves unavailable (“scratch”) for Friday September 26. Once you strip away the rhetoric (“anarchist activity”, “destructive”, “gutless” etc.), the leaflet boils down to four points. It’s the EA, stupid The leaflet does not once mention one single part of the proposed EA. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure that out this “vague idiocy about being unhappy” is actually about 1) the continued trade-off of conditions (two year freeze on the consolidated allowance, contracting out first aid etc); and 2) members being talked over the top of and ridiculed at meetings - instead of being listened to. Just because this was not spelled out on the “unsigned sheet” does not make this fact any less real. When we take action . . . Isn’t this the point? At no stage has any action been proposed by any of our elected officials. Given the huge volume of shipping lately, we have missed a golden opportunity to take action and win real gains. It should be clear to all that our elected officials never planned to take action and would only do so if put under massive pressure from the rank and file. “Insanity” or valid tactic? “Gutless” unsigned sheet Besides, what is “gutless” - not putting your name to a sheet that argues for taking action - or not taking action and trading-off our conditions? Despite what some may think, the en masse scratching by casuals had a positive effect. It might not have changed much in the EA, but it has forced the MUA Branch and site committee to listen to the casual workforce and take their concerns more seriously. A small victory in itself. Barack Obama – change we can believe in? Democratic nominee Barack Obama looks set to win the November 4 U.S. elections and become the country’s first African American president - a truly historic milestone in a country built on slavery. Voters want an end to George W. Bush and his war in Iraq. But Obama is politically much closer to the Republicans than to the millions that will vote Democrat. Big business backs Barack In 2007, Obama and Hilary Clinton raised just under $200 million between them, compared to a total of $126 million for the Republicans. In the month of January 2008, Obama pulled in $32 million - or just under the amount McCain raised in all of 2007. Big business knows it has little to fear from an Obama win. Tell me who your friends are . . . Others include Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (responsible for U.S.-imposed sanctions against Iraq that killed half a million children) and Zbigniew Brzezinski (who armed and financed the Afghanistani mujahideen that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda). Colin Powell, who promoted the first Iraq war, is also backing Obama. Iraq – same as it ever was He also stridently supports Israel’s suppression of the Palestinian people as well as U.S. sabre-rattling against Iran, Cuba and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Change – maybe just a little bit Obama has promised to rollback Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, raise the minimum wage and invest in education - all positive, but not very far-reaching. More telling though is his support for Bush’s latest corporate handouts - $700 billion for the buying up of Wall Street’s bad debts and another $250 billion to buy stakes in the biggest banks. His job creation policies amount to a $3,000 company tax break for each job created in 2009 and no increase in unemployment benefits. Obama accepts the continued role of private insurance in the health system and rejects real moves towards publically funded health care. The son of immigrants has even voted with the anti-immigrant right-wing to build a 1100km U.S.-Mexico border wall. Break with the Republicans AND Democrats An Obama win will however raise the hopes of millions of Black workers. Those who have suffered the brunt of American capitalism and racism will have a sense of pride in his victory. But his administration will still see schools and hospitals remain underfunded and the gap between the rich and the working class poor remain essentially unchanged. U.S. workers – black and white – need to turn their backs on the Democrats. US trade union donations to the Democrats (currently 93 percent of all union political donations) have to end. The only way forward is for U.S. workers to break all ties with the Democrats and work to build a fighting, independent labor party based on the trade unions. Karl Marx warned us that this would happen The current economic downturn is not just a terrible mistake caused by a few greedy bankers. Recessions are part and parcel of the capitalist system - something that Karl Marx understood long ago.
This constant drive to maximise profits leads to a “crisis of overproduction” - too many goods being produced for the market. Because these goods cannot be sold profitably, investment then falls, production is cut back and unemployment rises. These economic crises not only demonstrate capitalism’s inherent instability and inability to provide all people with decent living standards. They also demonstrate that capitalism is ready to be replaced by a more efficient and humane system that does not waste human and material resources. Karl Marx was right: if the working class wants to live, capitalism will have to die. |
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Patrick Botany kept MUA
first aid positions. Can’t
DP World do the same?
Under the capitalist system, the whip of competition forces companies to continually work to maximise profits. The only way they do this is by forcing workers to work longer and / or harder.
