Tugboat chaos looming for ports

The country’s largest tugboat operator, Svitzer, is in an ongoing dispute with the union over an enterprise agreement & they have decided to implement an indefinite lockout of the tugboat crews.

The company says it was left with little choice after union members employed by the company undertook two thousand hours of work stoppages since October.

As a result, they will lockout 582 employees across seventeen ports in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, from Friday.

Is chaos is now looming for Australia ports.?

As the Tugboats are used by the Port Authorities at the container ports to assist the exceptionally large container ships to berth for unloading of their cargo.

There are fears the lockout could cause further disruption to shipping ahead of Christmas, as well as interfere with the shipment of Australian produce.