YouTube - Australia Maritime Workers Memorial Service For Stephen Piper-3 Killed In Five Months
YouTube - Australia Maritime Workers Memorial Service For Stephen Piper-3 Killed In Five Months
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s398J_R8Vws&feature=sub
MaritimeUnion | July 26, 2010
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally expressed deep sorrow over the death of wharfie Stephen Piper and the awful statistic of 3 deaths on Australian wharves in 5 months.
Filmed, edited and produced by Jamie McMechan Maritime Union Film Unit.
The Premier was visibly moved as Mich-Elle Myers read the email written by Fremantle wharfie Ash Huish, the message encapsulated in "No family should sit and wait at the end of the working day for a loved one who never returns". Ash's words were recited at every service around the country.
Unions leant their support headed by Unions NSW's Secretary Mark Lennon. Wharfies and their families held up banners with the faces of 8 workers killed on the wharves in less than 10 years. One of those bore the smiling face of Nick Fanos, crushed to death at Port Botany in April. Nick's sister Maria bravely held up his banner.
The Sydney service was repeated across the country, lead by the highly emotional and dignified funeral in the Boyd Chapel, Springvale in Melbourne. National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said that the church service was a celebration of the wonderful life of a loving dad and husband. "It was about family and friends from the wharves and all walks of life. They paid homage to the joyful and generous character that was Steven Piper", said Crumlin. A full service could not hold some 200 wharfies who gathered outside the church.
The mourners included ACTU President Ged Kearney and former National Secretary John Coombs, arm in arm with his wife Gwen. Kearney subsequently sent out a press release calling for "workplace safety on Australian waterfronts to be overhauled to stem the mounting death toll among stevedoring workers".
Over 1000 workers attended the Fremantle service led by a number of politicians including the leader of the opposition Eric Ripper, ALP Canning candidate, Alannah McTiernan and Fremantle Federal MP Melissa Page, as well as reassuring words from Father Patrick Moore of the Stella Maris Seafarers Centre. "There was a lot of sorrow and just as much anger from workers. There was a feeling that everyone has had enough, that we can't wait for this to happen again", said West Australian Branch Secretary Chris Cain.
Even on a public holiday in Darwin 60 wharfies attended a service that ended in a wreath floating in the sea off Stokes Hill wharf.
In Brisbane the ALP candidate for Wright Andrew Ramsay was among the mourners.
Townsville wharfies from all sites in the port attended the service which was also attended by representatives from local unions from the Trades and Labour Council. "Wharfies speak emotionally and with concern about whats happening with safety because they do high risk work on the same type of ships, operate the same types of machinery and load the same cargoes around the country but work to different safety arrangements which they believe is contributing to the current increase in fatalities and incidents", said National Lead Organiser Bernie Farrelly.