Sorrow at death of Lyttelton watersider

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says a water­sider who died aboard a ship at the Port of Lyt­tel­ton on Sat­ur­day 21 Decem­ber 2013 was a union mem­ber.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood said the death of the work­er will hit the close knit work­force and com­mu­ni­ty hard.

He says infor­ma­tion received indi­cates the work­er was aboard a fer­tilis­er ves­sel when the inci­dent occurred.

Mr Fleet­wood says the Union will be call­ing for a meet­ing with health and safe­ty del­e­gates, man­age­ment of all port employ­ers, Mar­itime New Zealand and Work­safe offi­cials.

He says there are con­cerns that con­ges­tion in the port could be a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to health and safe­ty issues in the port since the 2011 earth­quake.

The Union will offer sup­port to fam­i­ly and work­mates of the deceased work­er.

The death is the sec­ond in the port with­in a month. A con­trac­tor died in a log­ging truck inci­dent on 26 Novem­ber 2013.