Global mining and maritime unions meet in Auckland

Min­ing and Mari­time Ini­ti­at­ive Chair Mick Dole­man says the uni­on form­a­tion brings togeth­er uni­ons with com­mon interests and is com­ple­ment­ing oth­er uni­on fed­er­a­tions.

Mr Dole­man, who is Deputy Nation­al Sec­ret­ary of the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia, says the glob­al­ized struc­ture of the min­ing and mari­time indus­tries required a glob­al response from work­ers.

He says the strong pro­gress­ive and mil­it­ant tra­di­tion in the min­ing and mari­time indus­tries means that the affil­i­ated uni­ons were already act­ively involved in inter­na­tion­al solid­ar­ity actions.

He says this is the first time the Min­ing and Mari­time com­mit­tee had met in New Zea­l­and.

Mr Dole­man acknow­ledged the con­tri­bu­tion of affil­i­ated New Zea­l­and uni­ons to major dis­putes which the Min­ing and Mari­time Ini­ti­at­ive had been act­ive in.

New Zea­l­and uni­ons had sup­por­ted miners in the Boron dis­pute in Cali­for­nia with min­ing giant Rio Tinto, which saw the com­pany defeated in its anti Uni­on lock out of work­ers, and had also sup­por­ted the Mex­ic­an miners in their dis­pute with min­ing com­pany Grupo Mex­ico, where miners have been killed and oppressed.

Hold­ing the meet­ing in Auck­land was an oppor­tun­ity to dis­cuss some of the major uni­on issues in the Asia Pacific region and New Zea­l­and itself.

Uni­ons affil­i­ated to the Trans Tas­man Trans­port Uni­on Fed­er­a­tion and the Trans Tas­man Oil and Gas Alli­ance were also meet­ing dur­ing the week.

The massive devel­op­ment of the off­shore oil and gas industry in the region was a major focus of interest, as was ensur­ing the devel­op­ment of uni­on­ism in nations of the region.

The Min­ing and Mari­time Ini­ti­at­ive brings togeth­er glob­al uni­ons includ­ing the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia, Inter­na­tion­al Long­shore and Ware­house Uni­on (ILWU) from North Amer­ica, CFMEU (Min­ing and energy – Aus­tralia), United Steel Work­ers (North Amer­ica), NUM (Nation­al Uni­on of Mine­work­ers – South Africa), ILA (Inter­na­tion­al Longshoremen’s Asso­ci­ation – North Amer­ica), SATAWU (South Africa Trans­port and Allied Work­ers Uni­on), UMWA (United Mine Work­ers – North Amer­ica), and CEPPWAWU (Chem­ic­al Energy Paper Print­ing Wood and Allied Work­ers Uni­on – South Africa).

Glob­al uni­on fed­er­a­tions also involved were the ITF (Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion), ICEM (Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Chem­ic­al, Energy, Mine and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Uni­ons) and IMF (Inter­na­tion­al Met­al Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion).

New Zea­l­and rep­res­ent­at­ives include the host­ing uni­on the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and and the EPMU.

The Min­ing and Mari­time Ini­ti­at­ive will hold its inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence in 2011 in South Africa.