Australia's container terminals face seven-day dock strike this week

AUSTRALIA's four big container ports - Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney - face a seven-day dock strike, as the union resumes cancelled work stoppages on Thursday May 26, which were first threatened in April but cancelled at the last moment.


"Our terminals will grind to a halt," said Patrick Terminals director Paul Garaty. "This will have a huge impact on Australian importers and exporters, hurting small businesses, Australian farmers and the transport industry reliant on containers to make a living."


Limited stoppages lasting 24 to 48 hours at the targeted Patrick facilities resumed earlier this month and now the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) says it plans "an unlimited number of bans on transfers of any type including but not limited to transfers from ship to ship, transfers from ship to yard, transfers from yard to ship, interport transfers and intraport transfers," said the union.


The MUA says talks over a new labour agreement have now taken eight months and while Patrick Terminals has "improved its offer" the company has yet to address safety and training issues raised by the union, reported London's Containerisation International. Patrick says the pending action will stop the movement of 50 per cent of Australia's container trade affecting 32 ships and 35,000 containers.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)