Tensions are rising again on the docks in Sydney. Only weeks after finalising a new four-year enterprise agreement with its union workforce, Patrick Stevedores has subleased a container depot at its Port Botany terminal to its parent company Qube Logistics. It has asserted that the depot is no longer part of Patrick and is not covered by the industrial agreement it struck with the union.

“Patrick’s attempts to compartmentalise the Port Botany Terminal by putting up flimsy fences to restrict job opportunities for our members is a sneaky, opportunistic plot to de-unionise the terminal, or at the very least to in-source cheap labour”, said MUA Sydney branch secretary Paul McAleer.

On 9 April, Port Botany wharfies and maritime workers were joined at Patrick’s Port Botany site by trade unionists from across the union movement. The gathering was a show of defiance against Patrick’s latest attempt at union busting and wage theft.

Patrick, an infamously anti-union operation, is once again pushing its anti-worker agenda to break unionism on the Australian waterfront.