Historical information

From the Maritime Union of Australia:
In December 2015 the crew of the MV Portland heard about their sacking by newspaper article. What ensued was a 60 day sit in by the crew to fight for their jobs.
The crew were threatened with legal action but they stood firm because they believed that their ship was purely cabotage trade taking Australian resources from one Australian port to another Australian port as it had done for 27 years without incident and it should have an Australia Crew.
On January 13 2016, at 1am the five remaining crewmembers aboard the Alcoa-owned vessel were woken by up to 30 security guards and intimidated into leaving the vessel.
A foreign crew had been flown in and it crewed the ship and it sailed off the Australian Coast.

This documentary was produced one year after the dispute but since then the Australian Industrial Relations commission was attempting to prosecute the union and the crew. They failed.

Physical description

Bronze coloured medallion. One side has an image of a vessel with writing around the circumference of the object. The reverse of the objects has a list of vessel specifications. with plastic stand - acrylic

Inscriptions & markings

Portland Smelter Services Pty. Ltd / Hyundai Corp. Hyundai Heavy Ind Co Ltd / Naming Ceremony / For / 36500 DWT Bulk Carrier / MV Portland / March 25, 1988 / Ulsan / Korea