maybe read the article from the MUA newsletter...http://www.mua.org.au/news-story/3503/
looks like its all sorted and the boards should be on the way by now..
IMO, i've never heard of a sideloader driver being able to get boxes off a wharf any quicker than a normal person...
and for full disclosure I am a maritme union member and employed as a stevedore...
If only the MUA and not the Port Authority will issue a press release then all fool them.
The situation remains that it is cheaper to airfreight in items one by one, rather than bulk by seafreight, we have become the banana republic we were warned about in the 80's.
I was involved in a food export business in recent years and shipped out a lot of food products out of various ports over australia, and definately over the years the wharfie strikes have lost us customers. Especially in countries like japan where reliability is important....
All of the food products australia exports can be sourced from other countries.. eg WA used to export a lot of table grapes and cauliflowers, and other vegetables to malaysia, after a couple of strikes in the past, the KL importers tried out chile for grapes..bang one export market was gone.... I dont think anyone exports table grapes to malaysia any more.
Many of australia's competitors are cheaper, and once we cant supply a market, and they try someone cheaper, its next to impossible to get it back... but then wharfies deserve the right to hold everyone else to ransom dont they ?
Is there an internet link to the pay/wages of WA wharfies ?
Do the wharfies in perth ever not get their contracts renewed ?
I got the impression that if that ever happened then we'd get another strike...
With the mining here in WA making wage costs higher for local manufacturing, and the high AUD$ making it harder to compete, every time you get a disruption, then it does hurt exporters. As time goes on every time we get less local exports... then once mining slows down there will be less local jobs....
All staff deserve to be treated fairly, but it does seem in the past that wharfies have abused their ability to damage other companies, and that I DON'T agree with....