On 13 and 14 May, the FPC passed a motion condemning BP for slashing jobs, replacing 36 Australian crew of the fuel tanker British Loyalty with cheap foreign workers, and closing one of the east coast’s main local fuel suppliers. It warned these actions made the country dangerously reliant on foreign suppliers and called for a high-level meeting with BP to demand that the British Loyalty and its current crew were redeployed to carry BP’s existing cabotage cargo.
Chevron was under fire over its history of anti-worker and union-busting efforts in Western Australia, as the company enters the New Zealand industry. The FPC condemned Chevron’s ‘sustained campaign to undermine wages, conditions and workers’ rights…and exploit both Australian and foreign labour in its search for increased profits’. It demanded that Chevron commit to entering into a long-term relationship with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) that respects workers’ rights, wages and conditions and the union’s right to represent them.
In the run-up to the FPC meetings, on 11 May ITF president and MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin declared Australia’s Barrow Island a port of convenience due to Chevron's history of union-busting efforts. The ITF and MUNZ organised a large protest rally outside the New Zealand consulate in Perth on 12 May and delivered a letter from Crumlin to the New Zealand government detailing workers’ concerns.
The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) national secretary Joe Fleetwood said: “We support responsible drilling with high safety standards, but we do not support companies that have a bad environmental record and anti-worker agenda entering our industry.”
ITF president Paddy Crumlin commented that the week’s actions aimed to alert New Zealand to Chevron’s poor record, which Australian workers had experienced first-hand.
To see photos of the FPC, visit.
