ITF: Patrick Layoff Plan ‘Will Be Defeated’

18 July 2012

ITF: Patrick Layoff Plan ‘Will Be Defeated’

Responding to today’s MUA warning that Australian port operator Patrick is planning to cut the workforce at Port Botany in half – just months after successful negotiations appeared to signal that all was well as the port – ITF general secretary David Cockroft stated: “This plan will be defeated.”

He continued: “Everything about this mass layoff smells, not least its timing. In 1998, when Patrick resorted to dirty tricks and one of the biggest attempts at union busting in Australian history they were handed a bloody nose by the country’s workers and their compatriots abroad. We have always been aware that sooner or later they might try another desperate gamble.

“The Patrick dispute was a watershed in Australian history, and in the history of the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) too. The lessons we learned then will be applied again now, until Patrick steps back from this latest attempt.”

ITF president and MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said: “It’s not acceptable to fail to mention this extraordinary and well planned action during some 20 months of negotiations and then inform the workforce via a press release.

He continued: “Patrick management are reinforcing their contempt for genuine productivity and this action only reinforces why it was so difficult to reach an agreement over the period of negotiation. It’s of enormous concern that the company wants to continue to wage a war against their workforce, the same workforce that managed the severe impact of the global financial crisis on their commercial operations and have always dealt with them with honesty and forthrightness.”

He concluded: “This is a political affront reflecting a cynical disregard for the human beings and their families who have underpinned the success of the company and not a commercial decision. It will be treated with the reciprocal contempt it deserves until a proper and mature conversation is established in place of this mass sacking by media release. The company has gone out of its way to terrorise their workforce and their families through the manner, timing and substance of this announcement.”

In 1998 the ITF mobilised worldwide support for the MUA during the Patrick dispute, including persuading the rulers of Dubai to prohibit the use of camps in that country for the training of ex-Australian soldiers as strikebreakers.

ENDS

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