Union boss: Payments for training
The Maritime Union of Australia has hit back at accusations it forced companies to pay millions of dollars for industrial peace for offshore oil and gas projects.
The royal commission into trade union corruption and governance was told on Monday that construction and dredging companies made a series of payments to the union and associated entities.
The money went to a training company owned by the MUA and known as Maritime Employees Training Limited, and to sponsorship of delegates' conferences and a union fighting fund to subsidise its day-to-day activities.
In one case, pipe-laying company Saipem paid $1 million to the training company after the union threatened to disrupt the firm's operations, if it went ahead with bringing in foreign tugboat crews to work on a project.
In a statement, MUA WA secretary Christy Cain said witness statements to the commission released yesterday showed companies that made payments supported METL's role in training local workers.
He said the witness statements were "inconsistent" with media coverage and the community may be misled into thinking the union had done the wrong thing.
"Tony Abbott's royal commission into unions is designed to weaken public support for the union movement," he said.
"The only thing uncovered in yesterday's (Monday's) hearing is our union's rock-solid commitment to ensuring Australians are trained with the skills necessary to work in the offshore oil and gas industry."
But WA Treasurer Mike Nahan said he was unsurprised by the allegations against the MUA.
"Anyone who's been around in that sector as long as I have, watching and commenting on it, it's been the norm for decades," Dr Nahan said.
Asked if companies had shown sufficient backbone in standing up to MUA demands, Dr Nahan said: "When you have a union that holds control over an essential resource like access to ports, what are they supposed to do?"
