The powerful Maritime Union of Australia is lining up with the Transport Workers Union, the Electrical Trade Union, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to form the single bargaining unit to pursue their claims and strike against what they claim is intransigence, MUA assistant national secretary Ian Bray said.

“When companies like Rio Tinto and PWCS refuse to engage in fair bargaining, those companies will always meet with the determination of workers to ensure a decent life for themselves and their families,” Bray said.

“We would have preferred to reach agreement without taking these actions, but given Rio Tinto’s anti-worker, anti-union posture, our members are moving forward to exercise their legal rights.”

As part of the action all members of the MUA employed by PWCS will engage in an unlimited number of bans on the performance of overtime, starting at 6pm on Sunday for an indefinite period.

MUA Newcastle branch secretary Glen Williams said: “If it takes one day or one month or longer, we are going to outlast a company that has decided to throw away many years of mutually beneficial relations for the sake of profit.

“This dispute has nothing to do with productivity or flexibility. Our members have shown over many, many years that they have been a willing partner in mutually agreed workplace changes that have benefited both PWCS and its employees.

“PWCS has manufactured this dispute in an effort to achieve total managerial prerogative and replace long-term employees with contractors.”

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.

PWCS has threatened to replace union members with inexperienced operators who are given a crash course in operating a 300-tonne mobile ship loader, TWU Newcastle & Northern NSW Sub-Branch secretary Mick Forbes said.

“That will increase the risk of personal injury and potential damage to the ships and loaders. It greatly increases our members fear, it’s not fair, it’s not productive and it’s certainly not as safe,” he said.