DP World Australia (DPWA) will release another 100 stevedores in Sydney, as well as 100 stevedores in Melbourne. This decision comes to add to the 47 stevedores that DPWA already fired in Melbourne this week through voluntary redundancies.
DPWA reached to this decision due to volume losses since September 2018. It also added that in the absence of negotiation progress over the past nine months, the company must address the impact of volume losses.
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In fact, the ever-increasing of consolidations led to changes to global shipping line services calling Australia. This fact, along with excess stevedoring capacity were the factors which challenged DPWA’s outlook.
What is more, during a three-month negotiation with CFMMEU, DPWA reduced their claims from 29 to just five. However, it claimed that the Union is unwilling to make any concessions on their claims.
For it side, the Maritime Union of Australia, part of the CFMMEU, said that the timing of the announcement, i.e during protected industrial action, was an attempt to threaten workers into accepting cuts to their rights.
The latest strike action comes after several stoppages that shut DP World container terminals for between 48 and 96 hours last week, including over 1,800 stevedores in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.