Former Port Waratah Coal Services Supervisors Working as "Strike-breakers"

BY SARAH JAMES

The Maritime Union of Australia is furious that at least two former supervisors of Port Waratah Coal Services are now working as strike-breakers during the industrial dispute at the Port Kembla Coal Terminal.

Long-running tensions regarding their current enterprise agreement came to a head at Port Kembla on Sunday, with more than 60 workers being locked out by the company.

Workers affected by this lockout will have their pay suspended for five days.

This move has drawn criticism from the Maritime Union of Australia, who argue it is ultimately stalling any enterprise agreement negotiations going ahead.

"Going outside and hiring external strike-breaking labour at the end of the day is not beneficial to anybody in finalising an agreement that has any stability going forward," said Deputy President of South Coast Labour Council Garry Keane.

"The workers in that terminal have kept that place going for many years. They've sat down and done numerous enterprise agreements, and they've never come to this situation. They've always been willing to sit down, work out agreements and they still are. But they're not going to do while they've got a gun held to their head that strips back the entitlements of 25 years," he elaborated.

Port Waratah Coal Services

Hunter Jobs To Go At Pacific National

BY IAN CROUCH AND GARY-JON LYSAGHT

 The Rail Tram and Bus Union is accusing Pacific National of casualising it's Hunter workforce by stealth.

Pacific National Jobs On The Line

The rail company has confirmed dozens of full time coal train drivers are being made redundant, with 40 jobs to go in the Hunter at the company's Port Waratah and Greta depots, with more than 120 job cuts statewide.

The union has slammed the move saying the company is advertising for casual staff while cutting full time workers.

The company says the job cuts are necessary to cope with the peaks and troughs in demand for staff.

But RTBU Organiser Steve Wright says casual workers aren't experienced enough.

"Casuals are on ad hoc; they won't be driving trains every day," he said.

"Pacific National have also indicated that anyone that gets tapped on the shoulder, they'll be requested to come back as casuals.

"It's about casualisation of the workforce, I think, and it's really disappointing."

Steve Wright says it's too late for some workers to re-skill.

"There are people who are 30 to 40 years on the job that'll possibly lose their job," he said.

"They're the sort of people that are at the age where they can'y pick up another job.

"It'll be very distressing, especially around Christmas."

But for Wright, the layoffs don't come as much of a surprise.

"It's the third time in five years that we've been under the pump with redundancies from Pacific National around Christmas time," he said