Yarra Crew Keep Oz Flag Flying

Date: 09 May 2002

Hundreds of messages of support are coming into the CSL Yarra from concerned citizens nationwide.

Beseiged crew on board the Yarra celebrated their decision to take a stand and stay on board with a barbecue last night.

"Spirits are buoyant and we all slept soundly, " said Jamie Newlyn, MUA assistant branch secretary.

Newlyn said contractors came to quote on repainting the ship's registery yesterday afternoon, but the crew were keeping the Australian flag flying from the ship.

And for the time being the Yarra still displays Melbourne as its registery on the ship's stern.

Captain John Briggs told media on the wharves last night how proud he was of the crew for taking a stand.

Provisions are starting to run low, but the local community had pledged their support and the people continue to arrive on the wharves each day in a show of solidarity. Children from the local primary school brought organic pumpkins, potatoes and onions from the school vegetable patch earlier this week.

Branch secretary Keith Ridgeway reports around 130 people rallied on the wharves from 5pm until mid night, including school teachers, families and unionists.

"The oldest man on the picket is 83 years old," he said. "They are all returning to the wharves this morning."

Ridgeway said the crew had also received hundreds of letters of support from concerned Australians nationwide.

The crew voted to stay on board in defence of Australian jobs for Australian workers yesterday afternoon in defiance of CSL Pacific Shipping Inc order to vacate the vessel by 5pm.

Meanwhile MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin flies to Melbourne this morning to join ACTU President Sharon Burrow on the community assembly rallying against the CSL Pacific.

The Pacific, once the Australian owned and crewed River Torrens, has been flagged in the Bahamas and crewed with Ukranians, but is still trading on the Australian coast. It is in Melbourne to offload cement from Adelaide on a single voyage permit.

This is despite the ship being subject to investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau after a serious accident on board earlier this year led to the hospitalisation of one crew member.

At the time the unions called for the Federal Government to revoke its permit to trade on the Australian coast. Under government guidelines, once a ship is under investigation by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau its permit must be cancelled. Instead the government
awarded the vessel another permit.

For further information

Union:	Labor Council of NSW
WWW:	http://www.mua.org.au

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