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.”

He says that a New Zealand com­pa­ny or Chi­nese com­pa­ny that sets up busi­ness here in a free trade envi­ron­ment and imports cheap labour will imme­di­ate­ly force oth­er New Zealand com­pa­nies to do the same in order to sur­vive.

Mr Han­son says the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in the fish­ing indus­try was a clear exam­ple of what to expect.

“What hap­pens now is a fish­ing com­pa­ny adver­tis­es for staff at extreme low rates of pay in the knowl­edge that New Zealand work­ers won’t apply, and the com­pa­ny is then approved to bring in cheap over­seas labour by the Immi­gra­tion Depart­ment.”

“We have politi­cians lin­ing up to defend a min­i­mum wage econ­o­my based on over­seas labour – local work­ers don’t get a look in with these peo­ple.”

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand shares con­cerns by the Green Par­ty, New Zealand First and Alliance about the free trade pro­pos­als.

Mr Han­son says the Union move­ment and work­ers have to wake up to what is hap­pen­ing.

“This is not where it ends, this is just the first step in a process and the Gov­ern­ment needs to be hon­est about the kind of pres­sures that are com­ing on them in this free trade deal.”

Mr Han­son urged the Gov­ern­ment to look at the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty where the use of cheap labour moved across bor­ders was cre­at­ing social hav­oc.

“Ask your local MP what and how a free trade agree­ment with Chi­na will work, and they won’t have the small­est idea of the impli­ca­tions – let alone the per­son in the street.”

He says that any free trade deal is a one-way street, and was a grave threat to some of the basic aspects of democ­ra­cy.

“Any farmer who thinks this is the way for­ward should reflect that in the near future the only sheep he will see will be at his near­est super­mar­ket and will be grown, brand­ed, packed and frozen in Chi­na.”

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, con­tact Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son on 021390585
or Mar­itime Union com­mu­ni­ca­tions offi­cer Vic­tor Bil­lot on 021482219