Category: Media releases

Lack of plan for maritime industry a serious problem

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says recent state­ments from Min­is­ter of Trans­port Stephen Joyce and retir­ing Paci­fi­ca Ship­ping Chief Exec­u­tive Rod Grout on New Zealand ports and ship­ping show the need for imme­di­ate action in the mar­itime indus­try.

Mr Fleet­wood says it is incor­rect for the Nation­al Gov­ern­ment to say they want mar­ket forces decide the future of the mar­itime indus­try, when mas­sive tax­pay­er invest­ment was direct­ed at roads and rail.

He says that a “hands off” approach to the mar­itime indus­try means major mar­ket play­ers would dom­i­nate the mar­ket and make deci­sions that could harm New Zealand’s trans­port infra­struc­ture.

We support West Australian offshore workers

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is sup­port­ing strike action by Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia (MUA) mem­bers in the West Aus­tralian off­shore oil and gas indus­try.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says many New Zealan­ders work in the Aus­tralian mar­itime indus­try.

He says that the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand works close­ly with the MUA and oth­er unions in inter­na­tion­al alliances such as the Trans Tas­man Oil and Gas Alliance.

Mr Fleet­wood says the Aus­tralian work­ers had the full sup­port of mar­itime work­ers around the world.

Union meets with Labour Party on Ports of Auckland

On Wednes­day 23 Decem­ber rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand, Auck­land Branch, Local 13 met with Labour MP’s Trevor Mal­lard, Phil Twyford and Darien Fen­ton regard­ing the future of key Auck­land assets under the pro­posed Super City leg­is­la­tion.

Maritimes magazine Summer 2009/2010 online now — plus calendars

Down­load the Mar­itimes mag­a­zine, Sum­mer 2009/2010 edi­tion here (PDF, 2 Mb).

We also have a lim­it­ed num­ber of back issues of the mag­a­zine plus full colour 2010 cal­en­dars avail­able. Con­tact us here if you’d like one.

Maritime workers oppose Ports of Auckland privatization sneak plan

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says any attempt to pri­va­tize the Ports of Auck­land will be met with mas­sive oppo­si­tion.

The Gov­ern­ment wants to repeal a law requir­ing a ref­er­en­dum before shares are sold in the port as part of Super City leg­is­la­tion.

Mar­itime Union Auck­land Branch Local 13 Sec­re­tary Rus­sell Mayn says the work­force at the port is firm­ly opposed to any part or full pri­va­ti­za­tion of the port.

Maritime Union warns of declining standards on waterfront

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood says employ­ers and Gov­ern­ment agen­cies appear to be turn­ing a blind eye to unsafe work­ing con­di­tions in New Zealand ports.

He says there have been ongo­ing feed­back from work­ers that paints a pic­ture of a decline in stan­dards in many ports.

Mr Fleet­wood says that the reces­sion and increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion for avail­able car­go in New Zealand ports means many employ­ers are cut­ting cor­ners.

Job losses averted at Port Otago

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says an agree­ment it has reached with Port Ota­go Lim­it­ed is a “win win” sit­u­a­tion that will pre­vent job loss­es.

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Pres­i­dent Phil Adams says a meet­ing of 150 car­go han­dlers held yes­ter­day at Port Chalmers vot­ed in favour of a pro­pos­al ham­mered out by the Unions and the Com­pa­ny.

Mem­bers of the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand and the Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union attend­ed the meet­ing.

Mr Adams says the pro­pos­al will see no com­pul­so­ry redun­dan­cies amongst the work­force.

“We believe the work­force will respond to the Com­pa­ny’s efforts by con­tin­u­ing to ensure a high lev­el of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty.”

Maritime Union elects new national officials in union elections

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has elect­ed two new nation­al offi­cials in their three-year­ly union elec­tions.

The new Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Union is Joe Fleet­wood of Welling­ton.

A new Assis­tant Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Union has also been elect­ed, Ray Fife, of Bluff.

The Nation­al Pres­i­dent of the Mar­itime Union, Phil Adams of Port Chalmers, was re-elect­ed unop­posed.

The Nation­al Vice Pres­i­dent of the Mar­itime Union, Gar­ry Parsloe of Auck­land, was also re-elect­ed unop­posed.

The elec­tions took place in a postal bal­lot of all finan­cial mem­bers of the Union which closed last Fri­day.

The new Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of the Union, Joe Fleet­wood, thanked mem­bers for their sup­port and thanked all mem­bers who took part in the demo­c­ra­t­ic process of the elec­tions.

Unions unite in Ports of Auckland labour blunder

The Ports of Auck­land has been put on notice from Unions that it will have to train its own work­force rather than fly in staff from oth­er ports.

The port com­pa­ny wants to trans­fer skilled labour from Welling­ton and Lyt­tel­ton to keep up with work after 12 weeks ago lay­ing off a sub­stan­tial num­ber of work­ers.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Vice Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says the sit­u­a­tion is a result of the port com­pa­ny ignor­ing Union advice.

“They were told there were too many redun­dan­cies, and it would cre­ate a short­age of skilled work­ers. Now this has hap­pened.”

He says that the Mar­itime Union would only agree for Unionised work­ers being trans­ferred into Auck­land if there was a writ­ten com­mit­ment from the Ports of Auck­land to train a suf­fi­cient num­ber of its own work­force.

International maritime workers represented at Maritime Union 2009 Conference

Mar­itime work­ers from around the world have gath­ered in Welling­ton this week as the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand holds its third tri­en­ni­al con­fer­ence.

The three day con­fer­ence sets the agen­da for the next three years of the Union and runs through to Thurs­day 29 Octo­ber.

The con­fer­ence was opened this morn­ing by Leader of the Oppo­si­tion Phil Goff.