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August 19, 2009

Ports of Auckland under threat from secret SuperCity agenda

The Mari­time Uni­on says it is con­cerned about the inten­tions of the Gov­ern­ment towards Auck­land’s pub­lic assets under the pro­posed Super­City.

The uni­on rep­res­ents sev­er­al hun­dred work­ers at the Ports of Auck­land, which provides a major income to the people of Auck­land who own the port through the Auck­land Region­al Coun­cil.

Mari­time Uni­on Loc­al 13 Sec­ret­ary Rus­sell Mayn says there has been an ongo­ing “soften­ing up” cam­paign from big busi­ness interests to sell off the Ports of Auck­land so they can get their hands on them.

He says there is ser­i­ous cause for con­cern that the Super­City plan for Auck­land’s loc­al gov­ern­ment will be used to push for­ward privat­iz­a­tion of assets — includ­ing the port.

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19 August 2009 No Comments

Fonterra and shipping companies held up to scrutiny

The Mari­time Uni­on’s com­ments on the effect on ports of decisions by Fonterra and ship­ping com­pan­ies have fea­tured widely in the news.

TVNZ reports that “the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and is call­ing for nation­al co-ordin­a­tion of port strategy, arguing that Fonterra is exert­ing such power as a cus­tom­er it is effect­ively ration­al­ising the port industry.”

The Tarana­ki Daily News writes that “Zeal­and’s water­front work­ers and sea­farers have sav­aged Fonter­ra’s decision to drop Port Tarana­ki, warn­ing it has the poten­tial to ‘rip the guts out’ of the port” fol­low­ing a “a bomb­shell decision last week, the dairy giant said it would be rail­ing Whareroa product to Auck­land and Taur­anga instead.”

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19 August 2009 No Comments

Regional ports at mercy of Fonterra and shipping companies

The Mari­time Uni­on says Fonter­ra’s decision to stop ship­ping con­tain­er­ized exports through Port Tarana­ki and Port Timaru was an example of how entire region­al eco­nom­ies with­in New Zea­l­and were being dis­rup­ted.

The recent announce­ment by Fonterra means the loss of 25,000 boxes of cargo to Port Tarana­ki in New Ply­mouth, and the loss of 24,000 boxes to Port Timaru annu­ally.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says the “overnight decisions” by Fonterra and major ship­ping com­pan­ies are harm­ing region­al com­munit­ies and region­al ports through a pro­cess of “destruct­ive com­pet­i­tion” where ports exper­i­enced major and unpre­dict­able changes in ship­ments.

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19 August 2009 No Comments