Maritime Union comes to aid of Russian crew in Ports of Auckland

The Mar­itime Union is tak­ing action to recov­er the unpaid wages of a Russ­ian crew aboard an arrest­ed ship in the Ports of Auck­land.

Mar­itime Union Local 13 Pres­i­dent Denis Carlisle says the Union has been assist­ing the crew aboard the ‘South­ern Pearl’ and is now rep­re­sent­ing the crew mem­bers.

He says the crew con­tact­ed the Union with their prob­lems.

“The crew have not been paid and have been sur­viv­ing on very poor food, no milk, veg­eta­bles or fruit. The amount of mon­ey they have been get­ting by on is very poor. It’s a con­cern­ing finan­cial sit­u­a­tion for them espe­cial­ly giv­en that the ves­sel has been arrest­ed.”

Mr Carlisle says the “flag of con­ve­nience” ves­sel has no agree­ment with the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) who ensure crews are paid a rea­son­able wage and have decent con­di­tions.

He says the goal of the Union will be to ensure crew mem­bers receive their pay before leav­ing New Zealand.

“Our inter­na­tion­al con­nec­tions with oth­er mar­itime work­ers will ensure this case is resolved sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly.”