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Maritime Union says it’s time to connect the dots on Flag of Convenience fishing

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed New Zealand sign­ing up to an inter­na­tion­al crack­down on ille­gal fish­ing – which also pro­vides a clear oppor­tu­ni­ty to solve the abuse and exploita­tion of mar­itime work­ers.

Fish­eries min­is­ters from Aus­tralia, Britain, Cana­da, Chile, Namib­ia and New Zealand have agreed to a plan which will mean glob­al track­ing of fish­ing ves­sels, as well as an online data­base of their names, loca­tion and his­to­ry, to help uncov­er ille­gal fish­ing.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the plan means that “half of the prob­lem” is being seri­ous­ly addressed.

European dockers victory shows global tide turning against “pirate capitalism”

The Mar­itime Union says a major Union vic­to­ry in Europe for job secu­ri­ty for port work­ers sig­nals a turn­ing of the tide in the glob­al mar­itime indus­try.

The Euro­pean Par­lia­ment vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly on 18 Jan­u­ary 2006 to throw out a plan to extend cor­po­rate con­trol over Euro­pean ports.

On 16 Jan­u­ary, 6000 dock­ers from 16 Euro­pean coun­tries mount­ed a strong protest against the plan in Stras­bourg, France, in defence of jobs, work­ing con­di­tions, health and safe­ty, and the qual­i­ty of port ser­vices.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says it is a major vic­to­ry that was gained by an active cam­paign by work­ers – and which has impli­ca­tions for the New Zealand indus­try.

Maritime Union members will refuse to work whaling ships

The Mar­itime Union says its mem­bers will refuse to work with any Japan­ese ship involved in whal­ing that vis­its a New Zealand port.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union sup­ports the two envi­ron­men­tal groups Green­peace and Sea Shep­herd in their attempts to end Japan­ese whal­ing in the South­ern Ocean.

Mr Han­son says the esca­lat­ing sit­u­a­tion increased the poten­tial for Japan­ese ships and planes involved in the whal­ing oper­a­tion to vis­it New Zealand.

Maritime Union calls for fishing industry wage hike

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed the announce­ment by Min­is­ter of Immi­gra­tion David Cun­liffe that the cur­rent sys­tem reg­u­lat­ing over­seas crews in the fish­ing indus­try will be over­hauled.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says offi­cial recog­ni­tion that crews are being under­paid and exploit­ed is an impor­tant first step.

Mr Han­son says he agrees with the Gov­ern­ment the seafood indus­try is impor­tant for New Zealand, but this does not trans­late into allow­ing employ­ers to do what­ev­er they want.

A grim Christmas for foreign fishing crews

The Mar­itime Union says the arrest of shipjumpers in Nel­son is not solv­ing the cause of the prob­lem.
Six Viet­namese shipjumpers were arrest­ed on Tues­day night in Nel­son.
Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says action is need­ed to ensure that crew mem­bers are being employed under decent con­di­tions.
“This Christ­mas, there will be over­seas crews work­ing in New Zealand waters in dan­ger­ous con­di­tions, for low pay, suf­fer­ing abuse and exploita­tion, while we turn a blind eye because it is mak­ing a fat prof­it for some­one.”

Time for lid to be lifted on fishing industry disgrace

The Mar­itime Union says the shipjump­ing of eight Indone­sians in Welling­ton from the fish­ing ves­sel ‘San Lib­er­a­tore’ was entire­ly pre­dictable as the ship had a his­to­ry of prob­lems.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union had to inter­vene on two occa­sions this year when over­seas crew mem­bers on the ‘San Lib­er­a­tore’ were being made to do water­front work nor­mal­ly done by New Zealand work­ers.

“There have been Gov­ern­ment reports say­ing there is abuse going on aboard these fish­ing ves­sels in New Zealand waters – why don’t we put the spot­light on the com­pa­nies oper­at­ing these ves­sels, rather than the work­ers?”

Maritime Union pays respects to Rod Donald – a friend of the Union

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has paid its respects to Green Par­ty co-leader Rod Don­ald, who died in the week­end.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says he has offered the con­do­lences of mar­itime work­ers to Mr Don­ald’s fam­i­ly and his polit­i­cal fam­i­ly, the Green Par­ty.

Kiwi maritime workers offer international solidarity across the Tasman

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says it will sup­port the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia and the Aus­tralian union move­ment in their fight to pro­tect the rights of work­ers.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Aus­tralian fed­er­al Gov­ern­men­t’s plans to attack job stan­dards for work­ers was expe­ri­enced on the New Zealand side of the Tas­man Sea in the 1990s, with the Employ­ment Con­tracts Act (ECA) intro­duced by the Nation­al Gov­ern­ment in 1991.

Department fiddles while crew members jump ship

The Mar­itime Union says the Depart­ment of Labour’s stance on two Viet­namese fish­er­men who have jumped ship in Nel­son is unac­cept­able.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Depart­ment of Labour has stat­ed in the media it will not act until for­mal­ly noti­fied by the fish­ing ves­sel char­ter­ers that crew mem­bers are miss­ing.

“In this case, the two miss­ing crew mem­bers have obvi­ous­ly jumped ship from the Sky 75, like the ten Indone­sian crew mem­bers before them, and these two fish­er­men are prob­a­bly liv­ing rough.”

Free trade deals could mean overseas labour trafficking in ports

The Mar­itime Union says that free trade deals and recent GATS nego­ti­a­tions have the poten­tial to intro­duce cut­price over­seas labour into New Zealand ports.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the use of ship’s crews and import­ed labour on the water­front is becom­ing a major prob­lem around the world.

“Inter­na­tion­al mar­itime com­pa­nies are already mov­ing low-wage, short term and casu­al labour across bor­ders to work in ports around the world.”