Maritime Union of Australia industrial action, page-7

Robert Gottliebsen is famous for having been involved with the previous 'Business Review Weekly' for many years but at age 80, remains an outstanding columnist who writes for Oz's best newspaper, 'The Australian'.

One hopes Patricks Terminals (QUB 50 per cent with Canadian Brookfield as the other holder) "win" this dispute:

(the Federal Coalition Government ought intervene, as the stakes are enormous. A very large percentage of what we buy in Oz arrives wholly or partly through the ports from overseas, and the vast majority of exports go by ship not air):

The Australian society that emerged out of Captain Phillip’s 1778 landing in Sydney Cove, while similar to Britain, avoided the centuries-old UK entrenched autocracy - where titles and assets were passed down from generation to generation, usually via the eldest son.

But now in 2021 Sydney, some 243 years after the Phillips landing, Australia has embraced its own version of the “mother country’s” autocratic system. And it’s the Chinese rather than the British that have played a role in allowing the autocracy system to be planted in Australia.

The Australian version of the UK autocracy is not based on manor houses that struggle to yield a cash return for the “lord”, but rather the lucrative cash flow generated from the waterfront.

Australian “lords” - once known as “wharfies” - have won the right for the next few hundred years to nominate as highly-paid employees their children, grandchildren and the generations to follow.

Of course today’s “wharfies” no longer carry heavy cargo on their backs but usually operate sophisticated, often airconditioned, machinery so there is no reason why they can’t wear a top hat and tails on the waterfront in recognition of their standing in the Sydney community.

And selected Brisbane “wharfies” have also obtained the same inheritance right.

My regular readers will realise that there is a satire content in the above remarks but it is also a deadly serious development that threatens productivity on the waterfront for the remainder of this century and beyond. It also shows that our competition laws have become hopelessly out of date.

The story of how this happened and why all employees on the Australian waterfront want to be “lords of the manor”, in the same way as a select group of those in Sydney and Brisbane, ranks with the 1788 landing on Sydney Cove as a remarkable event.

Until 2014 Sydney had two major stevedoring companies. Hutchison Ports secured rights to operate at Botany Bay and in 2014 started operations to give the city three stevedores.

Hutchison Ports is part of the gigantic global ports operation then controlled by Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka-shing. He also opened in Brisbane around the same time and tried to gain a Melbourne operation but was beaten by the Manila-based ICTSI.

Four years after the Sydney opening, Li Ka-shing’s son, Victor Li Tzar Kuoi, took over the executive running of the giant empire. Also around 2018 the Maritime Union of Australia began negotiating another enterprise agreement with Hutchison. One of the clauses in their demands was that the children and grandchildren etc of the then current workforce have rights to appoint around 40 per cent all the staff and the union be able to nominate another 30 per cent. In reality that meant that the worker families and the union controlled the operation rather than the owner, Victor Li.

Li Ka-shing, with his son and deputy Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, pictured in 1997.

Not surprisingly, Victor Li refused the budge on this issue. But then around May/June this year Li caved in. We do not know why he changed his mind. It may be that his Australian managers were exhausted. Perhaps the troubles in Hong Kong seemed a greater issue than the small part of Li’s global operation in Sydney and Brisbane.

Accordingly Hutchison Ports agreed to source 40 per cent of new hires from employees’ relatives (sometimes friends as well) and 30 per cent from a union list of names. In reality that means that Victor Li and his Australian managers no longer control the Hutchison Ports operation in Australia.

Almost certainly, over time, a workforce based on inheritance and union mates rather than ability will reduce productivity.

But for Victor Li it’s not all bad.

In Hong Kong the riots are over and the island is now part of China.

China’s President Xi Jinping has made it very clear to rich Chinese entrepreneurs that it’s their obligation not simply to make money but also serve the interests of the Communist Party.

If ever Li is called on by President Xi to nominate his “good deeds” for the party, potentially high on the list will be his introduction of the system of autocracy on the Australian waterfront which will curb productivity for hundreds of years - a wonderful way to punish Australians in the trade war.

To be fair to Victor Li, his Australian stevedoring rival Patrick Terminals had in 2016 agreed that new employees to the waterfront had to be approved by the Maritime Union. Patrick’s management has now changed and it wants to remove that clause in its latest enterprise negotiations. That was never going to be easy but, not surprisingly, the Patrick employees can see that their mates at Hutchison Ports are now the “lords of the waterfront” with jobs for their families for generations ahead. They also want to be “lords of the waterfront” and be able to secure highly-paid jobs for their descendants. .

Rolling strikes are taking place around Australia hitting businesses,farmers and consumers. But it’s generally agreed that if the Patrick directors cave in then autocracy will sweep through the waterfront and productivity gains will be lost for a century or more The nation has a lot of stake.

We are looking at a labour monopoly on the waterfront, not a corporate monopoly. Labour monopolies are far more dangerous. Sadly our competition laws clearly exclude any power over worker agreements. It’s up to the managers and directors of companies to be prepared to take the industrial pain to hold the line.

Ultimately it will be the farmers, businesses and consumers who will have to share the pain of the strikes to prevent Australia embracing a UK-style autocracy based on inheritance not ability.

* Footnote. Patrick Terminals is owned by Qube and the Brookfield infrastructure group. To remove union control of the workforce and prevent autocracy, Patrick has offered the workers 2.5 per cent year on year increase for four years and guaranteed job security with no forced redundancies. It’s a big price for management control. Current average pay rates are between $150,000 and $200,000.