The national crisis that never was
By not bowing to employer pressure during the Maritime Union of Australia's strike action, Julia Gillard has shown that Fair Work Australia is capable of delivering 21st century IR outcomes.
For a moment there it seemed like Australia had skipped backed 60 or so years to the Communist Party-inspired coal strike of 1949.
In that dispute, eventually crushed by the Chifley Labor government when it sent soldiers into the pits to extract the coal, much of industry ground to a halt and, in the home, power rationing was the order of the day. The strike lasted seven weeks before the 23,000 coal miners returned to work – a defeated force.
This time around it was the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) that was seemingly threatening to end civilization as we know it. At least, that was impression some sections of the media, as well as employer organisations, were giving when the MUA threatened to take fresh strike action in Western Australia's offshore oil and gas sector late last month after rejecting a 29 per cent pay offer over three years.
Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) chief executive Steve Knott said his organisation had hoped the introduction of the federal government's latest round of changes to the Fair Work Act (FWA) would have seen a shift to a more modern approach that led to job creation in an environment free of the disruptive and destructive strike activity based on the ideological warfare of the past.
"AMMA is therefore disappointed to see the archaic leadership of the MUA choose to remain out of touch, remaining fixated on the class warfare battles of the past. They continue to display a dinosaur mentality that has no place in modern Australian workplaces."
His counterpart at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson, seemed to have visions of an industrial apocalypse.
"Regrettably, this two-month strike has now morphed from a local dispute to one threatening our national economic interest and thus requiring immediate government intervention. It affects multiple states, involves claims across multiple employers and has not been brought to an end by the union or the IR regulator despite millions of dollars of damage to our economy in a strategically critical industry.”
Both Knott and Anderson wanted the Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard to intervene; so did the opposition. A union taking industrial action inside the letter of the law to pursue a wage claim is not acceptable to some employer bodies and the opposition if it causes any industrial disruption.
Gillard, wisely, refused to intervene. And the dispute returned to Fair Work Australia when the MUA called off its 48-hour strike after the shipping company, Total Marine Services, withdrew the legal action to stop the industrial action.
That was on January 28. Four days later, agreement has been reached without any further industrial action and with the workers locking in a 30 per cent pay rise over three years.
MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said: "At all times during negotiations we have bargained in good faith and over the past three days the union and management have been able to settle on an arrangement which I believe gives workers security and company stability through to July 2013 as they take on major offshore oil and gas projects.
"The (project) allowance will be paid at the completion of construction projects. We fought hard for this payment which now brings maritime workers closer to parity with other workers like riggers doing exactly the same task on those projects.”
This dispute was never going to be Armageddon; to suggest it was putting the national interest at risk by damaging Australia's trading reputation was simply hyperbole – as events have clearly demonstrated.
Even more disconcerting were employer and opposition calls for government intervention in the dispute. The philosophical premise that underpins enterprise bargaining – workers (collectively or individually) and companies bargaining to achieve a mutually acceptable outcome – sometimes means workers will take industrial action. Provided it's within the law, then so be it. This system is, after all, what employers want. Or does that only apply when they have upper hand?
Certainly their calls for government intervention would have more credibility if they were issued when employers locked out employees during negotiations; but they are strangely silent on these occasions.
No doubt the MUA is taking advantage of the booming oil and gas off north-west Australia to lock in handsome pay rises for their members; they would not be doing their job otherwise. But they have not broken the law.
Gillard did take some political flak when the dispute was making media waves. But she didn't waver and intervene. Now she can rightly claim the resolution of the dispute demonstrates that Fair Work Australia is working.
In that dispute, eventually crushed by the Chifley Labor government when it sent soldiers into the pits to extract the coal, much of industry ground to a halt and, in the home, power rationing was the order of the day. The strike lasted seven weeks before the 23,000 coal miners returned to work – a defeated force.
This time around it was the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) that was seemingly threatening to end civilization as we know it. At least, that was impression some sections of the media, as well as employer organisations, were giving when the MUA threatened to take fresh strike action in Western Australia's offshore oil and gas sector late last month after rejecting a 29 per cent pay offer over three years.
Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) chief executive Steve Knott said his organisation had hoped the introduction of the federal government's latest round of changes to the Fair Work Act (FWA) would have seen a shift to a more modern approach that led to job creation in an environment free of the disruptive and destructive strike activity based on the ideological warfare of the past.
"AMMA is therefore disappointed to see the archaic leadership of the MUA choose to remain out of touch, remaining fixated on the class warfare battles of the past. They continue to display a dinosaur mentality that has no place in modern Australian workplaces."
His counterpart at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Anderson, seemed to have visions of an industrial apocalypse.
"Regrettably, this two-month strike has now morphed from a local dispute to one threatening our national economic interest and thus requiring immediate government intervention. It affects multiple states, involves claims across multiple employers and has not been brought to an end by the union or the IR regulator despite millions of dollars of damage to our economy in a strategically critical industry.”
Both Knott and Anderson wanted the Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard to intervene; so did the opposition. A union taking industrial action inside the letter of the law to pursue a wage claim is not acceptable to some employer bodies and the opposition if it causes any industrial disruption.
Gillard, wisely, refused to intervene. And the dispute returned to Fair Work Australia when the MUA called off its 48-hour strike after the shipping company, Total Marine Services, withdrew the legal action to stop the industrial action.
That was on January 28. Four days later, agreement has been reached without any further industrial action and with the workers locking in a 30 per cent pay rise over three years.
MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said: "At all times during negotiations we have bargained in good faith and over the past three days the union and management have been able to settle on an arrangement which I believe gives workers security and company stability through to July 2013 as they take on major offshore oil and gas projects.
"The (project) allowance will be paid at the completion of construction projects. We fought hard for this payment which now brings maritime workers closer to parity with other workers like riggers doing exactly the same task on those projects.”
This dispute was never going to be Armageddon; to suggest it was putting the national interest at risk by damaging Australia's trading reputation was simply hyperbole – as events have clearly demonstrated.
Even more disconcerting were employer and opposition calls for government intervention in the dispute. The philosophical premise that underpins enterprise bargaining – workers (collectively or individually) and companies bargaining to achieve a mutually acceptable outcome – sometimes means workers will take industrial action. Provided it's within the law, then so be it. This system is, after all, what employers want. Or does that only apply when they have upper hand?
Certainly their calls for government intervention would have more credibility if they were issued when employers locked out employees during negotiations; but they are strangely silent on these occasions.
No doubt the MUA is taking advantage of the booming oil and gas off north-west Australia to lock in handsome pay rises for their members; they would not be doing their job otherwise. But they have not broken the law.
Gillard did take some political flak when the dispute was making media waves. But she didn't waver and intervene. Now she can rightly claim the resolution of the dispute demonstrates that Fair Work Australia is working.
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