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.”