Maritime Union will fight threatened job losses on Aratere ferry

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has strong­ly con­demned KiwiRail’s pro­pos­al for dras­tic job cuts on its Cook Strait fer­ry oper­a­tions.

KiwiRail this week announced it would remove the rail-enabled Aratere fer­ry from ser­vice in August 2025.

KiwiRail has advised today it is seek­ing to cut 70 jobs for MUNZ mem­bers in the deck and cater­ing depart­ments on the Aratere.

Fur­ther job loss­es are antic­i­pat­ed for offi­cers and engi­neers who are mem­bers of oth­er unions.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Welling­ton Branch Sec­re­tary Fiona Mansell says crew are angry at the announce­ment.

The Mar­itime Union would resist any job loss­es and would only accept vol­un­tary redun­dan­cies.

She says the pro­pos­al is a mas­sive let­down for crew who had worked hard and deliv­ered on the age­ing KiwiRail fer­ry fleet, and who were pay­ing for the fail­ures of man­age­ment and politi­cians.

“This deci­sion rips the heart out of our mar­itime work­force, leav­ing ded­i­cat­ed work­ers and their fam­i­lies fac­ing an uncer­tain future. It’s a betray­al of the peo­ple who keep our coun­try con­nect­ed.”

She says such a major loss of jobs would have a dev­as­tat­ing impact on New Zealand’s mar­itime resilience and would be a sig­nif­i­cant blow to our sea­far­ing work­force.

Ms Mansell says no thought has been giv­en to what KiwiRail will do when it requires more crew for its new ves­sels in the future.

“New Zealand deserves a resilient, capa­ble mar­itime sec­tor, not one that is dis­man­tled at the whim of short term think­ing and cost-cut­ting. Our jobs, our skills, and our nation­al sup­ply chain depend on it.”