Australian union agrees to enforce ten-year strike ban at Melbourne port
Over recent weeks the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has brokered new enterprise agreements (EAs) with major stevedoring companies across a number of Australian ports.
The agreement that most glaringly encapsulates the MUA’s decades-long drive to incorporate itself ever deeper into management structures and cement its position as an industrial police force for the stevedoring employers is the four-year deal it brokered with Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT).
Victoria International Container Terminal [Source: AECOM]
As part of the VICT agreement, the MUA has agreed to enforce a ten-year ban on “illegal” industrial action at the facility in exchange for the company dropping an $80 million damages claim against the union that arose from its picketing of the Webb Dock terminal in 2017. This action was conducted by union officials and their supporters, with no participation of the workers,
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
16 July 2021
India: Punjab public sector workers strike for better pay
Workers from several Punjab state government departments stopped work for two days on July 8 in protest over the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. The action followed demonstrations by public sector workers and doctors on June 23 and a week-long strike by the Punjab State Ministerial Services Union on June 22 over the commission’s recommendations.
Mass Media Employees and Officers Association members from the Health Department’s mass media wing stopped work and demonstrated on July 8. The association complained that their demand that workers in jobs with the same educational qualification be paid the same as workers in the Public Relations Department had been ignored.
Support grows for workers at bookshop that loses staff like a sieve greenleft.org.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greenleft.org.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
REFINERY NEWS ROUNDUP: India’s gasoline use rises, falls elsewhere in Asia-Pacific
India’s consumption of gasoline in June saw the highest month-on-month increase in a year as a decline in COVID-19 cases and the easing of lockdown measures boosted driving activity.
Some states, such as the western state of Maharashtra, eased restrictions early June.
Indian gasoline demand totaled 2.41 million mt in June, up 21% from May, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed. In May, gasoline demand hit a one-year low.
However, a new wave of coronavirus infections in Indonesia has dented the demand outlook for Asian gasoline, with participants anticipating a further decline in import demand as driving activity slows. The country, moreover, has already expanded its strict lockdown measures, with Bali, Java and the heavily populated cities in Sumatra having been placed under a lockdown since early July.
Photo: Chloe DS
Hundreds of unionists and supporters turned out to a rally, organised by Maritime Union of Australia - Victoria Branch on July 9, for workers who took 12 hours of protected industrial action in response to an ongoing dispute with Svitzer.
The company has reportedly threatened to sack workers, back-flipped on agreements and is trying to slash conditions and remove the unionised workforce. The dispute started when Svitzer sacked its tug boat crews last December and replaced them with labour hire contractors.
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