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Day: 19 August 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.

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.”

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.