Maritime Union calls for action on Cook Strait ferries

The Mar­itime Union says that it has had enough of cow­boy tac­tics on the Cook Strait after fur­ther rev­e­la­tions of anoth­er poten­tial fer­ry
ground­ing that was nar­row­ly avoid­ed.

The Union is con­cerned about reports the fer­ry ‘San­ta Regi­na’ was on auto pilot in the Tory Chan­nel on June 9 in breach of Mar­itime Safe­ty Author­i­ty rules.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Welling­ton Sea­far­ers Branch Pres­i­dent Mike Shake­speare says the lat­est inci­dent aboard the ‘San­ta Regi­na’
could have end­ed in dis­as­ter.

“We can no longer have these type of inci­dents occur­ring that pose a grave threat to the safe­ty of the pub­lic and of our mem­bers.”

He says inci­dents such as this are the result of cost-cut­ting by fer­ry oper­a­tors in a high­ly com­pet­i­tive mar­ket.

The Mar­itime Union is call­ing for stronger safe­ty reg­u­la­tions and appro­pri­ate crew lev­els.