A THIRD generation Newcastle seafarer was told his ship was dumped and his job was gone last week while the ship, the MV Mariloula, was in the South China Sea off Hong Kong.
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Jesse Stevens, 32, of Caves Beach, is one of 80 Australian seafarers – eight from the Hunter – cut loose when BHP and Bluescope informed the men and the Maritime Services Union it was dumping the Mariloula and MV Lowlands Brilliance, and severing ties with more than a century of Australian history.
“This is a national disgrace,” said Maritime Union of Australia national secretary Paddy Crumlin, who accused the companies of sacking the 80 Australian workers to replace them with $2-an-hour foreign labour working in foreign-flagged ships along the Australian coast.
The two vessels are the last Australian-flagged ships moving iron ore from BHP’s Port Hedland operations to BlueScope’s steelworks in Port Kembla, before transporting coal to China and returning to Port Hedland.
“It’s called the golden triangle run,” said Mr Stevens, whose grandfather Ron was a Newcastle tugboat worker and whose father Duane is still a tugboat skipper. Jesse Stevens has been a seafarer for 10 years. He received a BHP letter last week saying his job was ending after nearly 16 weeks at sea, and weeks of delay.
The seafarers and their union believe the Mariloula’s return to Australia was delayed so that both ships’ crews would receive the news away from Australia and during the quiet New Year period.
“I don’t know how I’m going to pay the mortgage. This is all I know how to do,” Mr Stevens said.
Hunter Labor veteran Peter Morris, whose landmark Ships of Shame report alerted the world to systemic problems in international shipping, said the BHP and Bluescope decision was “much bigger than just the loss of jobs and two ships”.
“It’s vital and in Australia’s national interest that we maintain a strong maritime skill base, particularly given our dependence on 95 per cent of our trade being carried by sea,” Mr Morris said.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon slammed the decision, saying it was a “tragic day for the once-proud Australian shipping industry, and a grave loss for all the seafarers”.
Ms Claydon said the Federal Liberal Government had been a key architect of the Australian shipping industry’s decline.
“From day one the Liberal Government set about dismantling Labor’s protections for Australian workers and our local shipping industry,” she said.
“Bluescope has no excuse not to employ Australian seafarers, especially when the company recorded a $1.6 billion profit in the last financial year,” she said.
Maritime Union organiser Mick Cross said iron ore was still going to be shipped from Port Hedland to Port Kembla and coal would still be shipped from there to China but it was not unreasonable to be concerned that it would “go on foreign vessels with exploited foreign labour”.
