Patrick Closes Down In Five Ports
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday April 18, 1998
Patrick is shutting down its operations in five ports, sealing the fate of more than 200 workers who were among 1,400 wharfies sacked by the company last Tuesday.
Patrick will stop operating in Newcastle and Port Kembla, Bell Bay and Burnie in Tasmania, and Adelaide.
The chief executive, Mr Chris Corrigan, told the group's joint administrator, Mr Bill Buttrell, in a telephone call yesterday that business had "dropped by half".
"He indicated he had pulled out or was pulling out of several ports," Mr Buttrell told the Federal Court, where he was giving evidence at the application by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) for an interim injunction against the 1,400 sackings.
The MUA said the closures were a "foretaste" of what was to come, but officials were confident other stevedoring companies would employ the workers.
A Patrick spokesman said the company being forced to divert ships to other stevedores and the resulting lost revenue explained why business had fallen by as much as 50 per cent across the group.
He said Mr Corrigan had taken legal advice over what would happen if the Federal Court ordered the company to reinstate the sacked workers.
The spokesman said it was not viable to expect Patrick to staff the terminals at the levels before the dispute.
The five ports due to close are among the smallest of Patrick's operations. They handle bulk cargo and do not employ the large number of workers who used to be contracted at the stevedore's container terminals in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
About 61 wharfies were employed at Newcastle, compared with 333 who were employed at one of the company's biggest container terminals, at Port Botany.
"The closures are not about union busting," the spokesman said.
"It is about productivity. The ports were overmanned."
The Bell Bay and Burnie terminals used to employ 68 workers and Patrick had intended to replace them with 12 wharfies before yesterday's decision to close, the spokesman said.
The MUA's assistant national secretary, Mr Vic Slater, said it was clear Patrick had been "deserted" by the shipping companies.
"We were promised a new era on the waterfront. But what we're now seeing is a nationwide network that is starting to contract," he said.
"The only way we can get something positive out of this enormous disaster is if a new operator comes in and takes over."
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
