Newcastle tug strike called off but Friday's national Svitzer lockout hinges on Fair Work Commission hearing on Thursday

Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Newcastle secretary Glen Williams said on Wednesday that the strike had been called off "in a show of good faith to the Fair Work Commission" even though it was "obvious that Svitzer still want to proceed with their national lockout on Friday, despite the commission's concern about the national economy".

Later, the ACTU condemned Svitzer's actions, saying it "drove up prices around the country during COVID" in what the union peak body described as "profiteering".

It said that after refusing pay increases for four years it was now threatening to lock workers out and starve them into submission, while holding the national economy to ransom.

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As reported Wednesday, Svitzer has been negotiating for three years with the MUA, the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU) and the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIMPE) over a new enterprise agreement.

The unions say Svitzer wants to slash conditions and they have taken a range of mostly limited industrial action at various times in the 17 ports where Svitzer operates, including the cancelled strike in Newcastle that was scheduled to have started at midnight Thursday.

The Fair Work Act encourages employers and employees to negotiate between themselves but the Fair Work Commission took the rare step on Tuesday to use its "own initiative" to bring the parties to the negotiating table.

In written directions after a hearing today, Vice President Adam Hatcher said a full bench hearing would sit on Thursday from 1pm and on Friday from 9am if necessary to decide whether Svitzer's "indefinite" lockout harmed the economy, and if so, whether the commission should "suspend or terminate" it.

Although the unions said they were offering to withdraw all industrial action until "beyond Christmas", a Svitzer statement to customers after the hearing included a list of industrial action it said it "regret(ted)" ahead of Friday's lockout.

The Svitzer statement said the commission intended to make its decision before its lockout of more than 580 employees started at noon on Friday.

"Most parties acknowledged in the FWC today that the lockout will cause significant economic harm," Svitzer told its customers about its own action.

But it insisted that all of the union industrial action "remains in place", including "stoppages" today in Newcastle, Fremantle, Geraldton, Kwinana, Adelaide and Port Pirie, along with an overtime ban in Sydney.

"We regret the severe disruption that this protected industrial action and the current uncertainty ahead of the lockout," Svitzer said.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke referred to the Svitzer situation in an address to the National Press Club today, saying the government was represented at the hearing where it was arguing the lockout must be stopped.

"What Svitzer are now doing is basically playing a game of blackmail with the Australian economy," Mr Bourke said.

"The damage to the Australian economy ... proposed by Svitzer is completely unacceptable."

Speaking before today's hearing, Svitzer managing director Nicolaj Noes described the lockout as the company's only remaining point of action.

"We had hoped it would never come to a lockout - but we are at a point where we see no other option but to respond to the damaging industrial action underway by the unions," Mr Noes said

"Svitzer has an obligation to serve its customers safely, reliably and efficiently and to ensure imports and exports, and our nation's trade and supply chains run without disruption."

The Morrison government commissioned the Productivity Commission to undertake a review of Australia's container port productivity, and the commission's draft report was published in September.

The MUA says the Productivity Commission found "no smoking gun . . . or no silver bullet" and although productivity increases had slowed in the past decade, this was "consistent with productivity trends in all industries".

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said Svitzer was threatening the national economy in "a disgraceful abuse of power".

"Unions have offered a way forward involving stopping all industrial action, but the company is abusing their monopoly power and our broken laws by threatening damage to our country's economy," Ms McManus said.

"This is exactly what Qantas did when they grounded their fleet after their pilots wore red ties to work. Employers like Qantas and Svitzer game the system because they can.

"The longer it takes for our workplace laws to change the more employers will rush to use and abuse the loopholes to the detriment of all Australians, and the longer wages will go backwards"

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