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Maritime Union members to meet during 24 hour strike at Ports of Auckland

The Mar­itime Union says it is com­mit­ted to a res­o­lu­tion in the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute, and mem­bers will be dis­cussing a way for­ward dur­ing a one day strike that starts tonight.

Around 300 work­ers in the Ports of Auck­land con­tain­er ter­mi­nal steve­dor­ing, road, rail, shut­tle and engi­neer­ing ser­vices areas will with­draw labour for a 24 hour peri­od start­ing at 10.59pm on Tues­day 2 Decem­ber.

Maritime Union to return to mediation in Auckland dispute

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand will return to medi­a­tion on Fri­day with Ports of Auck­land man­age­ment fol­low­ing medi­a­tion today in Auck­land.

Maritime Union confirms Ports of Auckland strike action

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has con­firmed strike action at the Ports of Auck­land for Tues­day 2 Decem­ber and Wednes­day 3 Decem­ber 2008.

Four­teen days notice of the strike action was giv­en to the Ports of Auck­land man­age­ment ear­ly this after­noon by Mar­itime Union Local 13, which rep­re­sents water­front and oth­er work­ers at the Port.

Casual workers must be offered support in recession

The Mar­itime Union says that pro­tec­tion for casu­al work­ers in the eco­nom­ic reces­sion is a major focus for 2009.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union is inter­est­ed in meet­ing with the incom­ing Min­is­ter of Labour in the new Nation­al-led Gov­ern­ment to dis­cuss the plight of casu­al work­ers.

Unionize to beat redundancy pain in economic meltdown

The Mar­itime Union says that mem­ber­ship in a union is the best strat­e­gy for work­ers to get pro­tec­tions at a time of inter­na­tion­al eco­nom­ic tur­moil.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says that while both major polit­i­cal par­ties have been out­lin­ing pre-elec­tion “job tran­si­tion poli­cies” to assist redun­dant work­ers, the best guar­an­tee for work­ers to do even bet­ter was to join a union today.

Qualified support for South Island ports merger

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has offered qual­i­fied sup­port to the merg­er of Lyt­tel­ton Port Com­pa­ny and the Port of Ota­go announced today.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union is a strong backer of ports remain­ing in local con­trol to pre­serve employ­ment and busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Labour employment relations policy deals with important issues

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has wel­comed the release of the Labour Par­ty’s pol­i­cy for employ­ment rela­tions today.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says it is impor­tant that the pol­i­cy has focussed on pro­vid­ing pro­tec­tions for work­ers in a time of glob­al eco­nom­ic tur­moil.

“The Mar­itime Union posi­tion is that we need to pay more atten­tion to the job secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty for work­ers, and this pol­i­cy has tak­en these issues on board.”

Lockwood’s comments show it’s time to sort out short-term labour

The Mar­itime Union says that action must be tak­en to pro­tect both local jobs and over­seas work­ers in New Zealand indus­tries after recent com­ments from Oppo­si­tion immi­gra­tion spokesper­son Lock­wood Smith about over­seas work­ers caused an uproar.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says a pro­gres­sive down­ward pres­sure on wages, con­di­tions and local jobs is spread­ing through­out large areas of the New Zealand econ­o­my, includ­ing the hor­ti­cul­ture and viti­cul­ture sec­tor.

“We are very aware of this prob­lem in the fish­ing indus­try and with flag of con­ve­nience ship­ping, and also with attempts to dis­place water­front labour.”

Concerns with port takeover threat

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has warned against the takeover of New Zealand ports after ship­ping giant COSCO announced its inter­est in buy­ing into New Zealand ports this week.

The Chi­nese state owned multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tion COSCO is one of the world’s largest ship­ping lines.

Mar­itime Union spokesper­son Vic­tor Bil­lot says the Union is opposed to hand­ing con­trol of ports over to glob­al oper­a­tors.

Maritime Union puts forward 2008 election goals

The Mar­itime Union has announced its pri­or­i­ties for the 2008 elec­tion.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union wants to see the return of a Labour-led Gov­ern­ment to con­tin­ue what he describes as incre­men­tal but pos­i­tive moves to devel­op the mar­itime and trans­port indus­tries.

Mr Han­son says the Mar­itime Union is strong­ly endors­ing the New Zealand Coun­cil of Trade Unions (CTU) elec­tion pol­i­cy doc­u­ment, espe­cial­ly regard­ing key issues such as wages, employ­ment rela­tions, health and safe­ty, ACC, and trans­port.