Aussie strike spills over to Durban

THE MAJOR labour dispute in the Australian ports has spilled over into the international world of unions with US longshoremen, and SA labour offering their support to the cause of their Aussie counterparts by refusing to handle Australian cargo and ships loaded by non-union labour.
The strike was the result of one of the two Aussie stevedoring companies restructuring its staff complement - and incurring the wrath of the aggressive port workers' unions.
While the initial strike only hit this one company's terminals, there was an overflow of unrest as striking workers picketed dock gates and harassed truck drivers moving goods in and out of the ports.
And Australian unions are not known to fight with kid gloves, according to John Turner, m.d. of P&O Nedlloyd. They are fairly brutal in their approach, he said, and definitely part of the old school of militant unions.
I can remember similar incidents in the UK when containerisation was brought in, and many small incidents brewed up into something more serious.
But, said Glen Delve, export manager of MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) - and a main SA player on the Australian sea trade - the unions don't seem to have the support of the more liberal government of the moment. So that weakens the unions' case somewhat, he added.
And Delve was relatively hopeful - on the latest reports he had received from Australian colleagues - that the initially volatile situation was stabilising, and that the strike was unlikely to spread.
Good news for MSC is that they have been escaping the potential delays by using terminals owned by the non-affected stevedoring outfit - and, apart from occasional re-berthing, have avoided any significant delays so far.