Shipping comes to standstill in key Australian ports as tugboat engineers launch strike

Shipping came to a standstill at key Australian ports on Tuesday as tugboat engineers began strikes earlier in the morning following unsuccessful wage negotiations.

Tugboat engineers for port services company Svitzer walked off the job at Newcastle, Botany Pay, Port Kembla and Geelong ports at 0400 local time on Tuesday for 12 hours, with further action planned in Melbourne and Brisbane on Wednesday.

The engineers sought industrial action after Svitzer attempted to bring the workers under the same contractual agreement as tugboat skippers and deckhands, negating engineer-specific issues and reducing qualifications.

A Svitzer spokesperson told local media the strike action is reckless and the new agreement would not have seen any changes to their working conditions for four years.

Instead, the company is asking the engineers to see it their way when they have three crew members covered by three separate agreements on the one tugboat.

"This is a bit of a Trojan horse from our point of view," Australian Institute of Marine & Power Engineers federal secretary Martin Byrne told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"This all seems very good but down the track we think there is a likelihood of some other changes and we won't be able to have the kind of control over the issues that we've got in the separate agreement."

Ship movements at Newcastle, Australia's largest coal terminal, have been suspended however loading and unloading of ships continues, Australia's national broadcaster reported. Enditem