Agmates

The Trucking stouch with the government that has been brewing for weeks is set to ignite into one of the most bitter and protracted disputes that Australia has seen for decades.

Truck drivers, owner drivers and the all powerful Transport Workers Union are lining up against State and federal governments across Australia. The dispute is over a number of issues that are forcing drivers out of the industry and owner operators out of business.

The first major salvo was fired last night on the ABC’s 7.30 report. You can watch the program here (scroll down the side bar and its the third story) or read the transcript here.

The 7.30 report basically outlines the Transport Workers Union(TWU) take on the issue. It is ominous when you see Tony Sheldon Federal secretary of the TWU saying:

“It’s breaking point. Drivers are literally being forced to put their lives and other’s lives at risk.”

The program takes a major swipe at Coles & Woolworths (you know the Supermarket Duopoly thats maintains it pays farmers a fair market price for their produce).

Apparently they won’t pay truckies more money to carry the goods either. In his interview when Tony says client, it’s actually code for Coles, Woolworths, major retailers and the major Transport compies that sub contract their work to 1,000’s of smaller privately owned trucking companies that are getting the short end of the stick (sound familiar). Tony Sheldon (pictured below) -

“The fuel costs mean the drivers work longer, harder and faster to meet the client demand. More drivers are getting killed, more people on our roads are being injured as a result of the pressures on truck drivers driven by economics of the clients.

The major retailers across the country are lying when they say that the prices have to go up because of fuel, because they’re actually not paying it to many of the people that cart their goods.

There would be hardly a driver in the country, whether they be employees or owner drivers that won’t be ruling out blockades.”

Meanwhile Mick Pattel who represents the grass roots uprising of drivers and owner operators agrees whole heartedly with the TWU stance. He has reported instances medium sized sub-contractors being threaten by Heavy weights in the Transport industry who carry for national retailers like Coles and Woolworths.

These huge multi-national transport groups are threatening to black ban any sub contractor who supports the shut down. This would effectively shut down many of these operators businesses. Mick has passed this information onto the TWU.

The drivers and owner drivers have a list of 20 demands that they want met. Top of the list is the scrapping of demerit points and fines for log book inaccuracies. It was clearly demonstrated in our recent article that a simple clerical error by a drive in a log book will cost them $600 and the loss of 3 points off the drivers license. Policing of these “poorly drafted laws” is causing many long serving drivers to leave the industry.

Here is what Queensland Minister for Transport John Mickel (pictured below) speaking to Arlie Douglas of Toowoomba ABC had to say about a recent meeting with Mick Pattel on this very issue:

“We won’t back down on one of the demands set by truckies planning to strike this Sunday.

Safety concerns will mean demerit points related to fatigue laws won’t be dropped.

One of the issues they wanted was the demerit points for log books which was introduced in March of 2007.

I will not be moving on that……..

There is nothing more dangerous than a driver who is fatigued being on the road with other road users.”

Mr Mickel might like to explain how fining a truck driver $600 for not drawing a line across a page, when the rest of the log book is in order including adherence to all fatigue laws is a safety issue. The facts are he and his Labor colleagues have drafted a ‘bad’ law.

Mr Mickels office told us on Monday that they realize there may be some issues with the way that the laws are policed and they will look into this. I’ll remind the minister that the police just enforce the laws they make. Have a look at the cartoon satire - Why Democracy is better. There is a line in there that Mr Mickel and all politicans should heed.

“Hi we are the Police force, we can only obey the laws, so whatever laws he makes, we’ve got to obey.”

It is the ultimate cop-out to blame the way police enforce the laws he and his Labor colleagues have made.

Agmates told the Minister that elements of the National Transport Bill were bad law making in our article “Lazy Labor Legislation will Impact Food Prices” back on the 19th of May this year. Indeed our articles on the issued formed a part of debate on the bill.

If the stand off escalates as it looks, that prediction about the laws impacting food prices will come true within months. As Geoff Thomas of Woolworths said on the 7.30 report:

“Blockades, depending on their nature and severity, could have a significant impact on Woolworth’s business.”

Blockades aside, food would be dearer in supermarkets if Woolworths and Coles were forced to stop using their 70% market domination to squeeze the life out of those that grow and deliver the product to their supermakets before they mark it up 100-250%.

The supermarkets rack up their margins and increase their profits whilst they squeeze the life blood out of every farmer and truckie who is responsible for putting food in their supermarkets.

They call this greater efficiencies in the supermarket business.

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Talks held in Brisbane yesterday with the QLD state government have failed to avert the looming National Transport Shutdown.

Shutdown Convener and private transport owner & operator Mick Pattel updates us on the outcomes of his meeting with QLD Transport Minister John Mickel (pictured) and Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams.

Mick Pattel private Livestock Transport owner & operator (pictured below) reports:

“The Qld Transport Minister John Mickel and three members of his staff were gracious enough to give us an hour and a half of their time on Saturday morning (19th July 2008).

Liz Schmidt attended the meeting with me as a part of the delegation and she is able to verify the outcome of the meeting. Liz is the President of the Queensland Livestock Transport Association (QLTA) however she was there in here capacity as a private transport owner / operator and not representing the QLTA.

Unfortunately I can only report that we did not resolve the issues at hand. The biggest sticking point was the removal of demerit points from log book breaches, and on that point the talks broke down.

I do however believe that the Minister is now acutely aware what needs to happen to avert this shutdown, we are not scheduled to meet again at this point.

We still have not met with anyone in the Federal Government and expect that the standoff there may continue, which is unfortunate.”

Following the meeting Tom Desmond owner operator of Emerald Refrigeration Transport joined Mick & Liz at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) building to meet with with QLD TWU secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) and some of his people.

Mick reported on that meeting:

“Hughie gave us about one and a half hours of his time, it was a friendly and constructive meeting that made them aware of the reasons we are taking this action.

Hughie fell short of giving us full support however he didn’t condemn our efforts to head off these reforms. He told us he would wait and see how much support we received as a result of the shutdown before joining us. The TWU have 15,000 members across QLD.

I believe that the TWU are genuine in their concerns for where the industry is going and need some positive direction from the real people in the industry. It always seems that the minorities get the most attention and they do not represent or portray any of the true issues, and never offer realistic solutions.

I thank Liz and Tom for their support and their input and everyone driving this program. Our delegates across Australia are doing a great job in giving people the information and building support.”

Below is the names and contact details of the movements delegates. If you’d like to contact them or pass it onto your local transport operator so they can contact them to join the movement.

QLD - Mick Pattel Mob 0429-413161 Ph 0747413161

NSW - Leo Fardell Ph 0268844433 Mob 0429844433

VIC - Darryl Brown Ph 0354353589 Mob 0408322868

Western VIC & SA - Russell Borchard Ph 0350243247 Mob 0419007815

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National Transport Industry Shutdown Convener Mick Pattel will meet with Qld Minister for Transport John Mickel (pictured) tomorrow saturady the 19th of June.

At the meeting in Brisbane, Richmond Livestock transport owner Mick Pattel will present to the minister the log of claims that has been developed by transport owners & drivers after recent well attended meetings held in Toowoomba, Emerald, Townsville, Dubbo, Wyong and Bendigo.

The shutdown which is scheduled to start in 10 days time is an incredible grass roots uprising from drivers and smaller transport business owners.

On the same day Mick Pattel is also due to meet with powerful Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) to discuss the Shutdown. Many of Mr Williams members will be involved in the shutdown.

Without any support from peak bodies such as the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) or State Transport associations who all oppose the shutdown it is estimated that 70% of drivers across industries such as Livestock Carriers, fuel tanks and refrigerated food trucks will stay at home for two weeks.

Many of the larger transport companies do not support the shut down but will be dragged into the dispute as more and more of their drivers elect to stay at home rather than drive.

The peak transport body the ATA who have been involved in the implementation of the new National Transport Legislation which is to come into effect at the end of September are vehemently opposed to the shutdown.

If the grassroots movement is successful in having 70% of drivers staying away from work the Peak transport bodies will extremely embarrassed as they will be seen as unrepresentative of their grassroots members.

Repeated request from Mick Pattel and his delegates for a meeting with the peak trucking body (Australian Trucking Association ATA) Chief Executive Stuart St Clair (pictured) have been stone walled by Mr St Clair who has stated publicly he is willing to meet with the group, but to date has never been available.

The shutdown is generating tremendous support with QLD State farming organization AgForce backing the shut down.

The owners and drivers delegate in Victoria Russell Borchard of Borchard transport at Mildura has told us that support for the shut down is growing each day.

“We have the backing of farmers, stock agents, fruit growers as well as hundreds of drivers. Everybody I speak to in Victoria and South Australia is right behind us. The numbers are just growing every day.”

I spoke to the head of the New South Wales Farmers Federation Jock Laurie at home on his farm today. He told us that the Organization was yet to consider whether they would throw their support behind the Shutdown as AgForce had.

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Have Your say!