Maritime Union calling for international support for Telecom engineers

The Mari­time Uni­on has added its weight to the struggle of Tele­com lines engin­eers fight­ing to pro­tect their jobs.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says mari­time work­ers will be sup­port­ing the Tele­com lines engin­eers, who are mem­bers of the EPMU, in their battle against con­tract­ing out.

He says a spe­cial nation­al exec­ut­ive meet­ing of the Mari­time Uni­on has been called for Monday, which will be fol­lowed by com­mu­nic­a­tions with the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion based in Lon­don and its New Zea­l­and uni­on affil­i­ates, as well as Aus­trali­an mari­time uni­ons.

“Tele­com and Vis­ion­stream imports through New Zea­l­and and inter­na­tion­al ports will now come under close scru­tiny espe­cially if they are related to the cur­rent dis­pute and the broad­band rol­lout.”

He says all work­ers should real­ize the threat to their live­li­hoods through con­tract­ing out and Tele­com was for­cing work­ers into fin­an­cial risk at a time of great insec­ur­ity.

“This is a major dis­pute and all work­ers should be sup­port­ing the Tele­com lines engin­eers because it is them today and us tomor­row.”

“This type of con­tract­ing out forces employ­ees into becom­ing depend­ent con­tract­ors in order to reduce their wages and con­di­tions.”

He says mari­time work­ers will be sup­port­ing ral­lies by Tele­com lines engin­eers on Monday in Wel­ling­ton and Auck­land.

Mr Han­son says the Mari­time Uni­on and the EPMU are part of the “Oil and Gas Alli­ance” which unites work­ers in the off­shore oil and gas industry and were work­ing closely togeth­er.

New Zea­l­and affil­i­ates of the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) include the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and, the EPMU, the Rail and Mari­time Trans­port Uni­on, the Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild, the Nation­al Dis­tri­bu­tion Uni­on and the Avi­ation and Mar­ine Engin­eers Asso­ci­ation.

The Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) is made up of 681 uni­ons rep­res­ent­ing 4,500,000 trans­port work­ers in 148 coun­tries. It is one of sev­er­al Glob­al Uni­on Fed­er­a­tions allied with the Inter­na­tion­al Trade Uni­on Con­fed­er­a­tion (ITUC).