Maritime Union calling for international support for Telecom engineers
The Maritime Union has added its weight to the struggle of Telecom lines engineers fighting to protect their jobs.
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says maritime workers will be supporting the Telecom lines engineers, who are members of the EPMU, in their battle against contracting out.
He says a special national executive meeting of the Maritime Union has been called for Monday, which will be followed by communications with the International Transport Workers Federation based in London and its New Zealand union affiliates, as well as Australian maritime unions.
Maritime Union highlights negative effects of Fonterra port pull out
The Maritime Union says regional ports have been hit hard because of a decision by Fonterra to rail goods to distant ports.
Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the moves have already led to notices of major redundancies in the port of Timaru, greater casualization of the workforce, and was threatening the viability of some ports.
“This issue cannot be dealt with by ports continuing to compete each other into the ground. It must be addressed by national co-ordination of our transport system, not the wasteful, insecure and chaotic mess we have at the moment.”