One Steel Subbies Win More for Scrap Boat Job

• Owner Drivers
• 27th January 2012

Did you know that with every ton of our exported iron ore processed by China and other countries there has to be a certain amount of scrap iron added.
Apparently you can't process the ore without the steel additive and that makes our local scrap iron quite valuable.

TWU members play a vital role in the collection and delivery of the scrap to Fremantle where it is loaded onto boats for overseas transportation.

Among them are a group of One Steel owner-drivers who cart the scrap to the docks in pocket road trains. Unfortunately the drivers were not being paid adequately and had become quite disgruntled with their rate.

With a scrap boat due to berth at the wharf they gave me a call to ask if the TWU could help out. I said we certainly could and got straight onto One Steel management to tell them they had a problem in need of fixing. I told them what the blokes reckoned they should be paid - and they said they'd have a look at it.

Unfortunately, by the time the scrap boat arrived One Steel management still hadn't got back to us. I had a meeting with the drivers on the wharf and they weren't very happy. So I got back onto One Steel and told them their problem had just got A LOT BIGGER!

After lengthy talks they guaranteed me that if the blokes completed loading the vessel, they'd make up the shortfall.

In the end they paid the subbies an extra $30 per hour for the work. We would have liked more but $30 was a pretty hefty increase and it certainly fattened our members' wallets a bit.

We also told One Steel that we want to sit down with them - before the next boat docks - to talk rates again.

In any case, what we did get was a hell of a lot more than what the drivers could have achieved as individuals.

TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER