Category: Blog

Temporary workers plan a recipe for disaster

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has attacked plans by employ­ers to bring in migrant labour into the seafood indus­try after mass lay­offs in the same sec­tor.

A week after Sealord con­firmed it would axe 323 jobs from its Nel­son mus­sel fac­to­ry, two South Island seafood com­pa­nies Tal­leys and Aotearoa Seafood have applied to import 100 migrant labour­ers.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says that the use of tem­po­rary labour being import­ed from over­seas threat­ens local employ­ment.

Maritime Union backs public ownership plan for rail and ferries

The Mar­itime Union says Gov­ern­ment plans to bring rail and fer­ries back under pub­lic own­er­ship would be a major step for­ward for New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the move is long over­due and is required to bring New Zealand’s trans­port infra­struc­ture up to world stan­dards.

“We need an inte­grat­ed trans­port sys­tem in New Zealand that has a sub­stan­tial pub­lic-owned com­po­nent for secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty.”

Shipping plan gets thumbs up

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says the release today of the final domes­tic ship­ping strat­e­gy “Sea Change” is a pos­i­tive move for New Zealand ship­ping.

Mar­itime Union Vice Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says the Gov­ern­men­t’s plans for coastal ship­ping are mov­ing in the right direc­tion.

He says $36 mil­lion of fund­ing for devel­op­ing coastal ship­ping over the next four years was a major boost.

Rail buyback on the right track

The Mar­itime Union says the buy­back of rail and fer­ries is a good step towards rebuild­ing a top qual­i­ty trans­port sys­tem in New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the move is pos­i­tive for New Zealand, and should have been done a long time ago.

“The only regret is that we have now had a gen­er­a­tion where this vital part of our infra­struc­ture has been first asset stripped then unsuc­cess­ful­ly oper­at­ed by glob­al cor­po­ra­tions inter­est­ed in share­hold­er prof­it, not for what is good for New Zealand.”

Maritime Union supports major port stoppages in USA and Iraq against war

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has con­grat­u­lat­ed mar­itime work­ers in USA and in Iraq for work stop­pages on May Day (1 May) against the Iraq War.

More than 25,000 long­shore work­ers at 29 west coast ports in the USA called an end to the war in Iraq on May 1 by stay­ing at home. The work­ers were mem­bers of the ILWU, the water­front union on the west coast of the USA, which has strong links to the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand.

Maritime Union welcomes release of 1951 lockout papers

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has wel­comed the release of secret SIS papers on the 1951 water­front lock­out to Archives New Zealand.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the 1951 water­front lock­out was the most sig­nif­i­cant indus­tri­al event in liv­ing mem­o­ry in New Zealand.

He says the Mar­itime Union still counts vet­er­ans of the 1951 dis­pute amongst its retired mem­bers.

Secure jobs safe after Port of Napier resolution

Mar­itime work­ers are cel­e­brat­ing tonight after a suc­cess­ful res­o­lu­tion of the Port of Napi­er dis­pute in medi­a­tion this after­noon.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the week long dis­pute had been about secure local jobs being pre­served at the port.

“We want­ed ship­ping com­pa­nies to be able to use steve­dores where secure local jobs could be achieved. Ship­ping com­pa­nies want­ed a solu­tion, we sup­plied one, and the port is back in action as of now.”

Global solidarity actions shut down Port of Napier

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has claimed a major vic­to­ry in its bat­tle to save secure local jobs at the Port of Napi­er.

The con­tain­er ves­sel Can­ber­ra Express left the Port of Napi­er last night (Wednes­day 19 Decem­ber) at approx­i­mate­ly 11pm with no car­go dis­charged after sit­ting idle at the port.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says this is a major devel­op­ment in the dis­pute and a vic­to­ry for local work­ers.

Napier maritime workers boosted by international support

Work­ers on the Mar­itime Union pick­et line at the Port of Napi­er were told ear­ly this morn­ing that tens of thou­sands of dol­lars of sol­i­dar­i­ty dona­tions were flood­ing in from around the world.

A hard­ship fund is being set up to look after the work­ers, many of whom are casu­al work­ers, as they face a tough Christ­mas.

Employment Court throws out Port of Napier injunction

The Employ­ment Court in Welling­ton today declined to put an injunc­tion on pos­si­ble pick­ets by work­ers at the Port of Napi­er as pick­ets loom over the sum­mer.

Moves by the Port of Napi­er to con­tract out steve­dor­ing work threat­en 25 per­ma­nent and 60 casu­al jobs, with work­ers to be thrown on the scrap heap just before Christ­mas.