Maritime and transport unions from numerous countries have supported Australian wharfies in fighting job losses, outsourcing, automation and threats to conditions at container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) stated.
Unions have written to DP World, highlighting the fact that the mistreatment of Australian dock workers is threatening positive industrial relations around the world.
Pledges of solidarity and support, as well as the correspondence, makes clear that international unions won’t sit idly by while DP World carries out unilateral attacks on the workplace rights and conditions of Australian dock workers, and collectively calls on the company to return to the negotiating table
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Specifically, ITF condemns ‘any attempt to outsource jobs to lower-paid, non-union contractors at the expense of experienced dock workers, which can only be seen as a union-busting exercise’.
In the same wavelength, ITF Dockers’ Section vice-chair and International Longshore and Warehouse Union President William Adams, stated that outsourcing and automation have significant impacts on productivity and profitability, along with social and community impacts on workers and their communities.
For this reason, any attempt to ‘water down union consultation requirements will be rejected by dockers unions around the globe.’
