These industrial laws prohibit all industrial action, except during designated “bargaining periods” for new enterprise agreements at individual workplaces, while at the same time legally protecting employers, such as Qube, who impose lockouts. The FWC is tasked with enforcing the draconian provisions of the Fair Work Act, introduced in 2009 by the Rudd Labor government with the full support of the unions. WA Ports Minister Rita Saffioti had previously appealed to the FWC to shut down the industrial action on the grounds that it was “causing substantial delays in unloading vessels at Fremantle Port, and consequently resulting in significant disruption to the WA economy.”įar from opposing this intervention by the government, the MUA responded by making an application for the dispute to be arbitrated by the FWC, placing the workers’ fate in the hands of the pro-business industrial tribunal. The MUA rushed to shut down the struggle after Michaelia Cash, attorney-general in the federal Liberal-National government, announced that she would ask the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to terminate all industrial action at Qube and impose compulsory arbitration.Ĭash claimed the dispute was “causing financial harm to the Western Australian economy” and “damaging the reputation of Fremantle Port.” Even after the MUA ended the industrial action, Cash made clear that the government would closely monitor developments in the FWC, declaring it critical “that the dispute come to an end.”Ĭash’s intervention came at the request of the WA Labor government, demonstrating the shared hostility of both major parties to the working class. The 121 Qube workers had been locked out by the company since early August after they began a campaign of limited industrial action over a new enterprise agreement. Container ship Maersk Surabaya in Fremantle Harbour, Western Australia Īccording to a report in the West Australian, more than 50 percent of Qube workers allocated to work the first shift back called in sick, indicating that there is substantial disagreement with the union’s decision to end the industrial action.
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