Talks between union members and PWCS have seen more than eight months of negotiations. The single bargaining unit represents workers from the Maritime Union of Australia, the Transport Workers Union, the Electrical Trade Union, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

A PWCS spokesman told ILN that talks would continue to tomorrow on a new enterprise agreement and that negotiations were being carried out by the company in good faith.

The company is seeking to achieve gains in productivity and flexibility with its proposed enterprise agreement, but will not be seeking to compromise health and safety or workers’ ability to collectively negotiate, he said.

But PWCS’ proposals are seeking to undermine the safety and health of workers, discard longstanding settlement procedure of contract issues, and radically change the scope of matters that can be arbitrated, according to MUA assistant national secretary Ian Bray.

Workers at Kooragang Island and Carrington have voted on the motion to take protected industrial action against PWCS, he said.

“In Australia, we have standards established over many years to make sure workers have a voice, a decent standard of living and, most important, a safety and health regime so their life and limbs are safeguarded.”

MUA Newcastle branch secretary Glen Williams said PWCS was refusing the union’s claim that sick or injured workers should have a right to leave without pay and salary continuance insurance to deal with their illness.

“PWCS has even gone so far as to try to remove the dispute procedure clause that has been in the agreement for many years which would allow PWCS do as it pleases even if a dispute resolution procedure is underway,” he said.

Transport Workers’ Union Newcastle Branch Secretary Mick Forbes said the problem was that PWCS management was not willing to bargain in good faith.

“PWCS is playing hardball – they won’t move on job security and proposed changes to the contractor’s clause makes our members very nervous about what the company’s real intentions are,” Forbes said.

“We have enjoyed a long period of industrial harmony at PWCS through generations of enterprise bargaining agreements that continue to benefit both parties.

“During the time PWCS has operated the coal loaders, we have seen a cooperative and consultative approach to industrial relations that has allowed PWCS to become the biggest bulk handling facility in the world.”