The situation is really very complex. They wanted automation to get rid of troublesome humans. But automation is simply not working.Why ?. In all honesty I don't know why, but there are problems after problems. Plus the old cranes could lift 1x40 or 2x 20 boxes, and the yellow strads could lift the same. The new cranes can lift 4x20 or 2x40 boxes. However the the autostrads (the blue ones) can only lift 1x20 or 1x40. See the issues. Complete waste of money. The autostrads only do around 60% of productivity compared with a manned strad. So they need more of them at 2.5 mill each. They are very very slow. (Ask a truckie) Automation has been put back till next March. Covid is blamed, but the system is not working, plus the Xmas rush and upcoming export season are almost upon us. Automation by then will be about 3yrs late.
As to why TGA can do it, the guys are not being thrashed as we are. They cannot hold train people here quick enough to keep pace with resignations. All of us work to support our lifestyles, but here if you have a young family, you leave home b4 the kids wake up, and you come home after they are back in bed. Imagine what your wife/partner thinks of that day after day. Then when you have a day off, make arrangements to do things, and POAL tells you at 1pm the day b4, "sorry you have to work". What does that do for "family life". This happens EVERY week. In the end people say "bugger this" and they resign. Poal are deceitful, they have no integrity, and frankly are dishonest, they favour one group over another (The Co union, Portpro, over MUNZ),therefore you often end up with the wrong people being promoted, and behaivour issues are often decided on the same basis. People are promoted on loyalties rather than talent. Remember also the new cranes (3x25mil each) have been here for 2yrs now and are not used anywhere near their capacity, the new strads have been almost 3hrs, (27 @ 2.5mill each) and only a few are used each day, sometimes none. All in all it is a shambles, if they swallowed their pride and went back to 8hr shifts most of the problems would go away. but they are too arrogant to do that. But after you have killed 2 people in 2yrs, the birds will come home to roost very soon.