Union official boasts Burke won’t stop port strikes

The recording emerged as Ms Binet refused late on Wednesday to grant DP World’s bid for a 90-day cooling-off period despite business concerns the action was significantly damaging the economy.

“Contrary to the views of DP World, my assessment is that the ‘threat of external intervention’ is a strong driver for compromise by both parties which will be lost if the suspension is granted,” she said.

Shipping Australia, representing major shipping companies, declined to comment on the MUA official’s comments but said Labor’s refusal to terminate the action appeared “reckless”.

“Mr Burke’s failure to rein in the waterfront union so far is already a damning indictment of his failure to care about ordinary Australians, and ordinary workers who are not part of the union movement,” a spokesman said.

MUA national assistant secretary Adrian Evans acknowledged Mr Dunn’s comments were made but said they “are not accurate”.

“The comments were made at the pub in the company of friends and colleagues, not at a formal meeting of the union,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr Burke denied making the comments to the union.

“The conversation you’ve described never happened.”

Mr Dunn delivered the industrial update to a group of members on November 28 after he and others had attended an MUA annual general meeting earlier that day.

Saying the MUA had secured Ms Binet to assist in six days of talks with DP World, he said, “we’re going to take it out of the hands of the company and Shipping Australia, who were calling for Tony Burke to intervene and take our ability to take industrial action off us”.

“That won’t happen – I can guarantee it,” he says in the recording, heard by The Australian Financial Review.

“We’ve been briefing Tony Burke, who’s a federal minister for industrial relations, all the way through – that will not happen. He has said that he will not intervene, especially now that we’ve agreed to six days locked down negotiations in WA, which is where that commissioner is from.”

Shipping Australia had written to Mr Burke last month to request he terminate the union’s industrial action due to what it estimated was $20 million a day in damage to the economy.

However, Mr Burke did not respond to the letter.

Labor’s Victorian Minister for Ports Melissa Horne this week said the state government would not intervene as it was “a private commercial matter” and had “not resulted in significant disruption”.

A ‘kind’ commissioner

Last week, the MUA sought to have conciliation in Perth, where deputy president Ms Binet lives, rather than on the east coast, where FWC president Justice Adam Hatcher had assisted talks.

“We are now going into locked down [talks] in Perth, in front of that commissioner, who’s a kind commissioner, which is why we went in front of her,” Mr Dunn told members.

He said in a previous conciliation, where DP World’s negotiator allegedly said “no to everything”, Ms Binet had made comments sympathetic to the union.

“The commissioner came out [of the meeting] and she said ‘I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing, the bloke is a complete psychopath’,” he said.

Mr Dunn went on to say Ms Binet would recommend suspension of the industrial action if there was enough movement between the parties, but if there was no movement it was open for more action.

“If she doesn’t think there’s been enough movement from the company or us, she can say well, gloves are off, go and take more action,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the FWC said Ms Binet had advised that all the alleged comments were incorrect.

Mr Dunn then laid out the union’s plan to ramp up action going into the conciliation and to punish DP World at the end if it did not reach a deal.

“Now he’s [DP World’s negotiator] locked into six days, our action will be on and we will ramp it right up going into that meeting. So they’re under pressure on the way in,” he said.

“And we will notify a massive action on the way out. So there’s a consequence for not agreeing when he’s there as well.”

The MUA ultimately suspended two 24-hour strikes during the conciliation but on Sunday, after the sixth day, notified a raft of rolling bans and strikes from December 18 until December 23.

‘Onus on DP World’

In refusing a cooling-off period, Ms Binet said orders to suspend protected action should not be issued lightly and the MUA appeared “more highly motivated” to settle talks by the end of the year.

She said the MUA had committed to suspending industrial action on each day future negotiations were undertaken and urged DP World to commit to meetings in the lead-up to Christmas.

Container Transport Alliance Australia director Neil Chambers said Ms Binet’s decision “puts the onus back on DP World”.

DP World declined to comment about the minister’s alleged promises to the union and said it “endorsed the FWC’s approach”.

“We rely on the commission to facilitate balanced dialogues and help both parties reach a consensus,” a spokesman said.

However, the spokesman said the MUA’s plan to ramp up action at the end of conciliation “confirms DP World’s concern that the MUA has no intention of negotiating in good faith”.

“The MUA is clearly willing to weaponise industrial action with no regard for the thousands of Australian businesses that are suffering,” he said.

He defended the company’s negotiator from claims of psychopathy by saying those were “baseless and offensive remarks”.

“Our negotiator is highly experienced, with a track record of successfully concluding numerous agreements in their extensive career,” he said.

Mr Evans said the union had sought conciliation in WA because the union’s lead negotiator and lawyer were based there and it was “happy to work with any commissioner”.

He said the union had updated the government on bargaining through the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and “there has been no engagement with Minister Burke at any point”.

The union has criticised DP World’s management for “clocking off for the year” and only offering to return to negotiations on January 29.

“The MUA remains ready to sit down and finalise a new agreement but for this we need the cooperation and attendance of Dubai Ports’ Australian managers,” Mr Evans said.