U.S. based Alcoa forcibly removes Australian crew from ship sold to Singapore

U.S. based Alcoa Inc. have forcibly removed the crew of an Australian cargo ship after the locally based crew had been protesting their sacking and replacement by foreign workers.

The downturn in commodities has forced Alcoa Inc. to undertake significant cost savings including the sale of 27-year old cargo carrier MV Portland to be replaced by more "cost efficient delivery methods" from its Western Australia mine to Alcoa's aluminium smelter in Portland.

The locally based crew -- seven of which are Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) members -- employed by a third party contractor have protested their sacking and refused to sail the vessel to its new owners in Singapore for the past two months despite multiple orders for Australian authorities to do so.

Some 30 security guards removed the five protesting crew members from MV Portland while docked in the early hours of Wednesday morning and replaced with a foreign crew. MV Portland has subsequently set sail for Singapore.

"The MV Portland has been sold and must be delivered to Singapore this month," Alcoa Inc. Australia managing director Michael Parker said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Alcoa has been extremely tolerant and given the MUA and its members every opportunity to stop their illegal industrial action. "

"Instead, the MUA has held our ship hostage for two months; disrupting the lives of other crew members, disrupting operations at the Port of Portland, and threatening the Portland community with the loss of cruise ship visits."

The MUA says switching operations to a foreign ship and crew on the domestic route MV Portland had been operating for 27 years is breaking Australian law which states ships trading through Australian ports must be Australian flagged and crewed.

"Australians have a right to work jobs in their own country and to be treated with respect by an employer profiting off the minerals that belong to the Australian people," MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said.

The Australian government controversially granted Alcoa Inc. a temporary 12-month licence to operate the exclusively domestic route with a foreign owned and operated ship late last year.