It comes as the MUA has been threatening supply chains with protected action at Patrick’s docks in the six months leading-up to Christmas and allegedly unlawful work bans at Fremantle Port against DP World.
Australian Mines and Metals Association chief executive Steve Knott, whose members include Qube, said “this is a very significant penalty that should see members of the maritime union asking serious questions of their elected officials”.
‘They do not own the waterfront’
“It is membership dues that will pay this significant fine – funds that could be directed towards lawfully advancing the interests of the union’s members,” he said.
“If an employer organisation copped a $2.2 million penalty for breaking the law, its leaders would not only be answering members’ questions but most likely be looking for other jobs.”
The MUA, whose Sydney officials will face members at the union’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, declined to comment.
A Patrick spokeswoman said it was “pleased that the court has penalised the [MUA] for their continued illegal behaviour”.
“Today’s decision might remind the union again that they do not own the waterfront which is an asset for all Australians.”
Patrick ‘will be broken or broke’
The 2017 dispute flared up when Patrick sub-leased an empty container yard to a subsidiary of its parent company Qube that was not covered by an MUA agreement, sparking fears Patrick was planning to deunionise the port.
An internal MUA report compared the fight to the union’s defining waterfront dispute with Patrick’s Chris Corrigan, boasting that the union was determined to see off the challenge “as we did in 1998”.
Wharfies engaged in a 24-hour work strike followed by a three-hour blockade and a week’s worth of bans on loading and unloading containers.
Justice Michael Lee found then-Sydney secretary Paul McAleer and his deputy, now branch secretary, Paul Keating, deliberately organised the unlawful bans to disrupt business with the “full support” of the national office.
Wharfies turned to Mr McAleer to tell them what to do, the court found, and Mr McAleer “marshalled” and “rallied” them into stoppages.
Meanwhile, Mr Keating warned Patrick that “the company will be broken or broke”.
Qube and Patrick claimed the bans interrupted 776 containers of export grain, requiring alternative road transport and additional costs to ensure shipment on time.
Qube was forced to spend $581,357 on subcontractors to transport containers and $791,416 in late fees that shipping companies charged it for not returning empty containers on time. It also lost rail revenue of $355,545 as the stoppages forced it to cancel services, the court found.
Patrick incurred losses of $364,725 from the bans as a result of engaging additional trucks to clear up the resulting congestion, which stretched into late June.
The MUA argued the companies’ alleged losses went beyond the actual period of industrial action and so were not caused by it, and claimed that other factors, such as rail cancellations and track closures, played a role.
‘Effective deterrent’
While Justice Lee rejected some of the stevedores’ claims, including that the strike caused Qube to lose freight forwarder Yusen Logistics as a client, he largely upheld them.
He said the MUA’s conduct was serious and the court needed to set penalties high enough to operate as an “effective deterrent”.
However, given he had ordered the union to pay “significant compensation”, he set a lower penalty amount than he would otherwise.
Mr McAleer, who lost his right of entry permit in 2019 ahead of taking a position with the International Transport Workers Federation, was fined $7500 and Mr Keating was fined $5000.
The damages order contrasts to an $80 million case Victoria International Container Terminals filed against the MUA for blockades in 2017 but which it ultimately settled for a 10-year ban on unlawful industrial action without a payout.
According to the union’s latest financial report, the MUA has about $5.9 million in cash on hand and deposits on call at the end of June 2021.
The statement shows the union has also been spending big on court costs, racking up $3.4 million in legal fees across the 2021 and 2020 financial years.
The union recently agreed to suspend protected action against Patrick until mid-December after the company sought to terminate the action because it allegedly threatened the economy.
Mr Knott said poor productivity and lawbreaking was “spiralling out of control”.
“Nobody wants to see another major waterfront dispute like 1998, but that’s the trajectory we appear to be on,” he said.
“At the end of the day users of Australia’s ports – primary industries, small business, mum and dad households – will get fed up with the inefficiency and this will reach breaking point.”
