On Monday 27 September 2021, the 'AFR' leads with this, which is paywalled:

(a major problem is that some of QUB's competitors are very weak and give in to the MUA's often outrageous demands):

Port strikes threaten to cripple Christmas

David Marin-Guzman Workplace correspondent

Sep 27, 2021 – 5.00am

"Furniture, televisions, electronics, toys, sporting goods and food are facing months of delays as port strikes across the country, triggered by a worsening dispute over union demands for more pay and control of hiring workers, threaten to cripple imports ahead of Christmas and further strain supply chains in the middle of state lockdowns.

The Maritime Union of Australia has this week escalated already damaging industrial action at Patrick Terminals and notified that hundreds of wharfies will strike for 48 hours in Sydney’s Port Botany next weekend and for 12 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Melbourne for the whole of October..."

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Talk about holding Australia to ransom!

This costs QUB and the container shipping lines big time.

From observation, many ships are already running a couple of days to as much in a few cases, 10 days' late on round trips even if just from Asia, so these strikes just add fuel to the fire.

For instance, the MSC Lucy, a container ship that carries up to 8034 TEUs) (6.1 metre standard shipping conatiners, though many are now 12.2m) was originally due to berth at the Port of Melbourne and berth on 18 September at 0500 AEST, after first servicing Botany Bay in Sydney. However it arrived at Swanson East (the Patricks terminal) at 0822 AEST on Wednesday 22 September.

MSC Lucy did not depart Melbourne until 1230 AEST on Saturday 25 September. If everything was running smoothly, it should have been in port for around 36 hours, perhaps at maximum two days (48 hours) but occupied a berth for about 76 hours.

This reduced productivity creates compounding delays for other ships that are forced to wait (in Melbourne's case) either at an anchorage in Port Phillip Bay or in Bass Strait.

Eventually, it means the shipping lines miss a week with their vessels (instituting what's called a 'blank sailing' - pushing all the ships down a week due to late running) so exports are delayed as well as imports.

Another strategy that's sometimes used is that a ship will be altered to only call at two Australian ports instead of three, meaning landbridging of some containers by rail may be necessary between say Sydney and Melbourne or Brisbane. Container lines may also alter timetables to have fewer port calls in mainland China, which means imports to Australia are further delayed as they await carriage on another of the operator's ships.

With retailers wanting to have stock before Christmas, the MUA knows it has port terminal operators and the community over a barrel.

Disgraceful.