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Qube strike “paralysing” Australia’s supply chain

Shipping Australia has called on the federal government to end the current stand-off between Qube and the Maritime Union of Australia

Further industrial action been announced a Qube ports across Australia as negotiations between the stevedore and Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) for wharfie working conditions continue to hit roadblocks.

Strikes at Qube’s Brisbane, Port Kembla, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Fremantle sites are either already underway or due to commence, with the MUA stating the “blind ideology of Qube Ports managers is preventing ports throughout the Australian waterfront from returning to work”.

The Union has rejected Qube’s offer of an 18 per cent pay increase and is demanding a wage almost 130 per cent above the stevedoring award.

Current negotiations are progressing so poorly that Shipping Australia has written to Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt to intervene in the situation using his s.431 Fair Work Act powers, which would terminate the strikes and send the dispute to the Fair Work Commission.

“Qube is a vital component in our supply chain. The cargoes and ships it handles are highly specialised. Qube provides high quality handling of family cars, light industrial vehicles, wheeled and tracked vehicles of all kinds (including farming equipment and Defence Force materiel and assets), heavy and odd-shaped machinery for construction, mining, and energy generation, and a wide range of materials for construction (such as large and heavy beams),” Shipping Australia says.

“Regional ports also handle small volumes of containers, which carry everyday goods, such as food, household goods, and other goods, which are destined for Australian families across remote and rural Australia.

“Qube ports, and their cargo and ship-handling services, are vital to the wellbeing of Australia.

“Make no mistake, while this industrial action may be slow-moving, and is not as visible to the everyday Australian as other shipping and port sectors, this disruption will surely begin to cripple our economy. Australian families, businesses, and industries will inevitably start to suffer.

“We have reports of large ships, full of family cars, bouncing back and forth between the main car import terminals because the ships have difficulty discharging. There are vessels stuck off the Australian coast with no reasonable prospect of getting a berth soon. Cars are being offloaded at the wrong ports and then trucked – at massive cost – across Australia.”

CEO of Shipping Australia, Captain Melwyn Noronha, says the delays caused to Australia’s entire supply chain by the port strikes is becoming unacceptable.

“Enough is enough. Immediate action is required by our elected officials to show that they care about everyday Australian families. Ministers must act to bring this disruption to an end,” Noronha says.

“If we look at the bigger picture, we can see that this industrial action is part of a systemic problem with the Australian waterfront. In fact, there are a series of massive dockside enterprise bargaining negotiations that are due to occur this year.

“Our port sector is subject to a near-continuous campaign of paralysing industrial action. Clearly, there needs to be a fundamental root-and-branch reform of industrial relations law and policy if Australia is to remain competitive on the world stage.”

The MUA says Qube has disrespected the process of negotiation, and the onus is on Qube to come to the negotiating table “in good faith”.

“Qube have only sent a decision maker in the last three of over sixty meetings. This is the example of manipulation of intractable bargaining the MUA was always concerned about,”, MUA Deputy National Secretary Warren Smith says.

“Qube and the MUA have a workable agreement on the table which would see all industrial action lifted and a conclusion to the negotiation process.  But on two non-cost issues amidst continued company threats of intractable bargaining continued industrial conflict is inevitable. That’s on Qube.

“The two issues relate to discrimination against workers who took industrial action and removing choice of workers to have IP, both at no cost to the agreed outcomes.”

UPDATE: The strike has been withdrawn as of 07:00 on Wednesday, January 15 2025

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