Category: Blog

International maritime unions gather in Wellington

Mar­itime unions from around the Pacif­ic are rep­re­sent­ed in Welling­ton this week for the sec­ond three-year­ly con­fer­ence of the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand.
The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has wel­comed del­e­ga­tions from the All Japan Dock­ers Union, the Inter­na­tion­al Long­shore and Ware­house Union (ILWU) from the west coast of North Amer­i­ca, and the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia, who have made pre­sen­ta­tions at the con­fer­ence on indus­tri­al and polit­i­cal issues.
Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says sev­er­al key themes have emerged from the Con­fer­ence.

Maritime Union says minimum wage free trade deal will meet industrial resistance

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union will resist any attempt to under­mine wages and con­di­tions through short term casu­al work­ers import­ed under free trade deals.

He says that com­ments by Trade Min­is­ter Phil Goff on the Chi­na free trade deal are dis­turb­ing for work­ers and not in line with the Labour Gov­ern­men­t’s com­mit­ment to a high skill, high wage econ­o­my.

There will be no incen­tive for train­ing or pay­ing for skills if busi­ness­es are able to step out­side the nation­al labour mar­ket and pull in trained staff on the min­i­mum wage, says Mr Han­son.

Maritime Union congratulates Government action on overseas fishing crews

The Mar­itime Union says the new rules to improve wages and con­di­tions for over­seas fish­ing crews announced today are good news for work­ers.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the announce­ment means the indus­try will be brought into line with the rest of New Zealand busi­ness.

“Despite a co-ordi­nat­ed cam­paign by spe­cial inter­ests in the indus­try, the Gov­ern­ment has made the right deci­sion and the prin­ci­pled deci­sion.”

Free trade deal biggest threat to workers since Employment Contracts Act

The Mar­itime Union says the free trade deal with Chi­na is the biggest threat to work­ers in New Zealand since the intro­duc­tion of the Employ­ment Con­tracts Act in 1991.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the impor­ta­tion of short-term, casu­al­ized skilled labour being paid the min­i­mum wage will be a dis­as­ter.

“This is obvi­ous­ly going to have a major and neg­a­tive effect on wages and con­di­tions in New Zealand.”

Fishing bosses out of touch on wages and conditions

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says com­ments by cor­po­rate heads of New Zealand’s fish­ing indus­try shows their out­look is out­dat­ed.

He says some fish­ing boss­es are try­ing to under­mine a Gov­ern­ment plan to ensure mar­ket rates were paid to all fish­er­men in New Zealand waters.

Mr Han­son says the moves by the Gov­ern­ment are the result of a long process of inves­ti­ga­tion, and need­ed to hap­pen to bring New Zealand into line with Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) stan­dards.

Maritime Union steps up support of locked out Progressive workers

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has boost­ed its sup­port of locked out dis­tri­b­u­tion work­ers at Pro­gres­sive Enter­pris­es with union mem­bers to con­tribute one hours wages per week until the dis­pute is set­tled.

Mar­itime Union Act­ing Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ter­ry Ryan says the res­o­lu­tion was passed unan­i­mous­ly on a nation­al con­fer­ence call of all ports today.

“The Mar­itime Union is 100% com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing the locked out work­ers at Pro­gres­sive using all finan­cial, indus­tri­al and polit­i­cal meth­ods open to us.”

Maritime Union backs Progressive workers battle

The Mar­itime Union is sup­port­ing locked out mem­bers of the Nation­al Dis­tri­b­u­tion Union at Pro­gres­sive Enter­pris­es sites in Auck­land, Palmer­ston North and Christchurch.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union has com­mit­ted itself to finan­cial, prac­ti­cal and moral sup­port for the work­ers and their pick­ets.

He says the sit­u­a­tion is a seri­ous one because it showed how multi­na­tion­al cor­po­rates in New Zealand are deter­mined to cre­ate a low-wage econ­o­my.

Push for cheap labour trafficking in Oz shows where free trade deals are leading

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says that grow­ing pres­sure to bring unskilled labour into Aus­tralia under a free trade agree­ment has con­firmed its worst fears.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says that pro­pos­als to allow com­pa­nies to import unskilled Chi­nese work­ers into Aus­tralian ports and con­struc­tion sites gave a clear mes­sage to New Zealand work­ers.

“This is the equiv­a­lent of a huge neon sign flash­ing out the warn­ing that free trade deals will inevitably lead to a col­lapse in wages, con­di­tions and work­ers rights. It is time we have a nation­al debate on free trade, and get the issue away from the con­trol of bureau­crats and pri­vate inter­est groups.”

Plea for help from fishing vessel “named and shamed” in global abuse report

Burmese crew mem­bers aboard the fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” in the Port of Timaru have approached unions with a plea for help, a day after their ves­sel was “named and shamed” in an inter­na­tion­al report.

The fish­ing ves­sel “Sky 75” was fea­tured as a spe­cif­ic exam­ple of crew abuse in an inter­na­tion­al report from the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) that was pre­sent­ed to a Unit­ed Nations meet­ing on mar­itime law that opened in New York yes­ter­day.

New Zealand ITF co-ordi­na­tor Kathy Whe­lan says the “Sky 75” is a repeat offend­er, and the ves­sel had already come to the atten­tion of the ITF when 10 Indone­sian crew left the Kore­an reg­is­tered fish­ing ves­sel ‘Sky 75’ in the Port of Nel­son in Sep­tem­ber 2005.

International report on crew abuse highlights abuse in New Zealand waters

As the Mar­itime Union fights for the rights of sea­far­ers in New Zealand waters, a new report from the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) to the Unit­ed Nations paints a dis­turb­ing pic­ture of abus­es of human rights at sea.
The report names the case of the ‘Sky 75’ in New Zealand waters as one of “ruth­less exploita­tion of fish­ing crews.”
The New Zealand ITF and Mar­itime Union took action when 10 Indone­sian crew left the Kore­an reg­is­tered fish­ing ves­sel ‘Sky 75’ in the Port of Nel­son in Sep­tem­ber 2005.