Some 160 representatives from 11 maritime unions in 10 countries met in Sydney, Australia in a conference designed to set the union agenda on global port automation.
Delegates at the conference on 29-30 April set an ambitious strategy anchored on a clear principle - that maritime workers accept automation as a fact of life and are open to transparent negotiations over implementing automation, but strongly oppose union-busting dressed up as technological change.
Paddy Crumlin, Maritime Union of Australia national secretary and ITF president, said: “We are united in the view that automation will not be imposed, it will come through negotiation. We are building the widest possible alliance to ensure workers’ interests are represented, and employers should understand that a global network is strengthening its resolve to respond decisively to unilaterally imposed automation.”
He continued: “Dockers are skilled, professional workers with valuable insight and experience to share, who see automation as an opportunity for new skills and training. Their place is at the table where the suitability of new technologies is examined. There must be no automation without negotiation. Unions are committed to dialogue with employers which is open and fair. However, employers who try to use automation as an attempt to destroy unions, impose excessive job cuts and remove employment conditions should know that we will take action against them.”
The presence of US employers Long Beach Container Terminal (OOCL) and Ports America Group, who both have collective bargaining contracts with the US International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), was welcomed. Crumlin compared their practices with Patrick. “OOCL openly invited the ILWU to sit down and work the issues through,” he said. “They knew it was going to be a difficult process...but were keen to get an understanding with labour about how the technology was going to be implemented. Patrick, on the other hand, has engaged in a lack of transparency that looks like, smells like, tastes like union-busting. ”
Ray Familathe, ILWU vice president mainland, and Sharon James, ITF dockers section secretary, also spoke at the conference. Familathe commented: “Waterfront employers have often said that if they can’t beat us, then they'll try to shrink us down to a more manageable size. They’re hoping that their new 21st century technologies on the docks will eliminate jobs and reduce union power. Our goal is to protect permanent employment for all registered dockworkers throughout the world, whether it’s in traditional cargo-handling terminals or fully automated container terminals.”
