Kwinana Grain Terminal workers poised to vote on new enterprise bargaining agreement with strikes put on ice

CBH Group’s Kwinana Grain Terminal port staff are poised to vote on a new enterprise bargaining agreement within a fortnight, with initial plans for a two-week strike almost certainly dead in the water. Maritime Union of Australia WA branch assistant secretary Jeff Cassar said port workers and plant operators — who walked off the job for four days in January — had put plans for further strike action on ice. Workers at the State’s biggest grain export port had been considering a two-week strike from January 27, pending discussions between the MUA and the co-operative. The two back-to-back seven-day actions would have disrupted CBH’s grain exporting program amid WA’s 26Mt-plus harvest. Mr Cassar said that after weeks of tense exchanges between the two parties, which led to the MUA issuing a letter of concern from its lawyers about two weeks ago, there was a breakthrough on January 24 and “positive discussions” continued last week. He said workers took part in an in-principle vote on Monday, January 30, where they unanimously backed CBH’s planned changes to its EBA. CBH is expected to have a draft EBA for the workers to consider by the end of the week, with workers set for a formal vote to action the agreement within the next fortnight. Mr Cassar said the port workers were “almost certainly” set to vote the same way in coming weeks, with the final sticking points centred around a grading matrix, shift notification, and loading. “We had a minimum 90 per cent of the workforce at the meeting on Monday, and the vote was unanimous … it would take a crazy backflip by CBH for things to change,” he said. “We went back to the company last week and said ‘you are close, but not quite there’, and CBH made those adjustments. “We took it back to the workforce on Monday and the changes were satisfactory. “We have had a promise from CBH that they would ‘get cracking’ on the new EBA.” While the four days of action were understood to have had limited impact on CBH’s busy shipping program, a consecutive two weeks would have been of major concern. CBH in January labelled the strikes as “disappointing”, saying they posed a threat to the State’s lucrative grains industry. CBH’s daily shipping roster showed 11 vessels carrying nearly 450,000 tonnes of wheat, barley, canola and lupins for four different grain traders were scheduled to depart Kwinana Grain Terminal between January 27 and February 3. The action comes after a year of discussion between the MUA and CBH reached boiling point in December, when CBH allegedly “reneged” on several claims which were non-financial. Both parties agreed to a 5 per cent wage increase for late last year. CBH’s annual results revealed a record surplus of $497.m and cemented plans to spend $4b on its network during the next 10 years. CBH was contacted for comment.