Skip to main content

ITUC joins opposition to BHP’s decision to end 100 years of Australian shipping

ニュース 記者発表資料

BHP Billiton the Anglo-Australian multinational mining company headquartered in Australia has dumped its Australian crew from two vessels that carried iron ore from Port Hedland in Western Australia to steelworks in Port Kembla and to China.

“BHP has turned its back on Australian values. The once proudly Australian company has used a legal loophole to avoid paying Australian workers their entitlements and chosen to lower its working standards and conditions,” said Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

80 Australian seafarers will lose their jobs, ending more than 100 years of Australian-crewed iron ore shipping servicing BHP and BlueScope steelworks. The jobs will be replaced with crew on Flag of Convenience (FoC) vessels which exploit cheap foreign labour, and are registered in jurisdictions which allow companies to avoid paying tax.

“It is totally unacceptable for global businesses to exploit the workers of low wage countries by transporting them to high wage jurisdictions to take the jobs off local workers. This is not how a good global corporate employer behaves. For the trade union delegation in Davos, the case of BHP represents the crisis facing the global economy,” said Burrow.

“BHP’s use of insecure, low wage jobs will do nothing but fuel insecurity, fear and inequality. BHP’s corporate influence over the Australian government, who issued visas for low wage workers to assist the sacking of Australian workers, demonstrates the risk to democracy when governments fail to protect their own citizens. Fear and insecurity are generating an age of anger,” concluded Burrow.

Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) also condemned BHP’s decision from Davos today: “Seafarers working on Flag of Convenience registered ships are subject to poor working conditions and lower wages because they are at the mercy of a system that allows for minimum regulation and the acquisition of cheap labour.”

“BHPs replacement of decent jobs with exploited workers exposes their corporate greed and the Australian government’s failure to take responsibility for its own citizens,” said Cotton.

The ITUC has joined Australian trade unions and the International Transport Workers’ Federation in putting BHP on notice and demanding that these jobs are immediately reinstated.
 

Contacts:
Gemma Swart, ITUC | +32 479 06 41 63 | gemma.swart@ituc-csi.org
Luke Menzies, ITF | +61 (0) 433 889 844 | menzies_luke@itf.org.uk
 

Notes for editors:

About the ITUC
The International Trade Union Confederation is the largest democratic organisation in the world representing and promoting the rights of working people. The ITUC represents 181 million workers in 163 countries and territories and has 340 national affiliates, campaigning, organising and advocating for workers' rights.

About the ITF
The International Transport Workers' Federation is a democratic global union federation of 670 transport workers trade unions representing over 20 million workers in 140 countries. The ITF works to improve the lives of transport workers globally, encouraging and organising international solidarity among its network of affiliates. The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies that take decisions affecting jobs, employment conditions or safety in the transport industry.

現場の声

ニュース

カタールの政府・交通運輸企業との意見交換会

 ITF とカタール労働省は、カタール国内および国際的な運輸・物流企業と意見交換会を開催し、同国の交通運輸部門における国内労働法および国際労働基準の適用について議論した。  4 月末にドーハで開催されたこの会議では、経済、気候、衛生をめぐる不確実性の高まりを受け、交通運輸産業のレジリエンス(回復力)とサステナビリティ(持続可能性)を確保するために
ニュース

ETF会長の交替

クロアチアのスプリットで開催された欧州運輸労連(ETF)の執行委員会において、ジョルジオ・トゥティがETFの新会長に選出された。
ニュース

メーデー:より良い世界を築くために交通運輸労働者は団結する

ITFは世界の労働者とともにメーデーを祝う。メーデーは連帯と闘争、そしてすべての人々のためにより良い世界を築くための決意の日だ。