KPI to enter into regional federation

Indonesia’s Sea­far­er Union, Kesat­u­an Pelaut Indon­sia (KPI) has agreed to enter into a fed­er­a­tion with trans­port unions from Papua New Guinea, Aus­tralia and New Zealand after a for­ma­tive meet­ing in Kupang today.

The Mar­itime Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion (MIF) aims to bring togeth­er unions with sim­i­lar inten­tions in order to secure jobs for local mar­itime work­ers to ensure wealth cre­at­ed in the region is ben­e­fit­ing local com­mu­ni­ties.

The meet­ing also endorsed an offi­cial launch date of the MIF at the begin­ning of the next finan­cial year.

In addi­tion to KPI, the MIF con­sists of the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia (MUA), Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and Papua New Guinea Mar­itime and Trans­port Worker’s Union (PNGTWU) and has the poten­tial to include the East Tim­o­rese union, SMETL and oth­er unions in the Asia Pacif­ic region.

Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) Pres­i­dent and MUA Nation­al Sec­re­tary Pad­dy Crum­lin said pri­vate com­pa­nies sup­port­ed by cer­tain neo-lib­er­al gov­ern­ments were con­sis­tent­ly try­ing to under­mine organ­ised labour and to defend against these attacks, unions had to work togeth­er.

“One of the major growth areas for jobs is the Asia Pacif­ic and the inter­na­tion­al trade union move­ment hasn’t been able to keep up with this growth,” Mr Crum­lin said.

“We need a new mod­el and a fed­er­a­tion of like-mind­ed unions is one of the ways we can change the old, tired mod­el to build capac­i­ty and dri­ve mem­ber­ship.”

KPI Pres­i­dent Hanafi Rus­tan­di said the MIF was an excit­ing con­cept and would give the union more bar­gain­ing lever­age and abil­i­ty to organ­ise mem­bers.

Mr Rus­tan­di talked about how a MIF would help the union extend into the bur­geon­ing hydro­car­bon indus­try, at places like Kupang.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood said unions need to secure decent pay­ing jobs to cre­ate a future and a career path for all.

“A fed­er­a­tion with our neigh­bours works in the inter­est of New Zealand’s work­ing class, as well as the work­ing class in the oth­er coun­tries,” Mr Fleet­wood said

“Some of the com­pa­nies we come across have the wealth to influ­ence Gov­ern­ments, some com­pa­nies, like Chevron, are finan­cial­ly big­ger than New Zealand.

“As a result we need to grow our strength using our sheer num­bers.”