Maritime Union has strong views on transport productivity inquiry

The Mari­time Uni­on says it intends to make sure a Gov­ern­ment inquiry into trans­port and logist­ics is not just about pro­mot­ing privat­iz­a­tion in the ports sec­tor.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood says the Uni­on will be tak­ing an act­ive and crit­ic­al approach in its con­tri­bu­tions to the Pro­ductiv­ity Com­mis­sion’s inquiry into Inter­na­tion­al Freight Trans­port Ser­vices.

“We won’t be accept­ing any status quo think­ing and ‘free mar­ket is best’ assump­tions that some­times accom­pan­ies these reports.”

Key issues for the Uni­on include keep­ing con­trol of New Zea­l­and ports in New Zea­l­and hands.

Mr Fleet­wood says any move to privat­ize ports would quickly res­ult in the con­trol of New Zeal­and’s logist­ics infra­struc­ture passing to GNT (glob­al net­work ter­min­al) oper­at­ors and ship­pers, who would oper­ate the sys­tem for their own bene­fit, not New Zeal­and’s bene­fit.

He says many prob­lems with New Zea­l­and ports cur­rently come from lack of plan­ning and co-ordin­a­tion, not through lack of com­pet­i­tion.

“The Mari­time Uni­on is pro­pos­ing a Kiwi­Port concept where port own­er­ship remains in com­munity con­trol but nation­al co-ordin­a­tion is used to min­im­ize dis­rup­tion and end the duplic­a­tion of infra­struc­ture we cur­rently see.”

The Mari­time Uni­on had been arguing for years that secure per­man­ent jobs, a career path for young people enter­ing the industry, and world lead­ing health and safety had to under­pin any pro­ductiv­ity gains.

“There is no point expect­ing pro­ductiv­ity from cas­u­al­ized work­ers who are not prop­erly trained and for whom there is no career path. But this is the approach of many employ­ers in the industry.”

“We will be mak­ing sure that pro­ductiv­ity is not just an account­ing term for employ­er profit, but refers to the well­being of work­ers in the industry.”

He says the Uni­on ques­tions some of the assump­tions sug­ges­ted by the Pro­ductiv­ity Com­mis­sion, includ­ing a concept of com­pet­i­tion as an intrins­ic good.

“In the mari­time industry, com­pet­i­tion has driv­en corner cut­ting on health and safety which has led to deaths and injur­ies, down­wards pres­sure on wages and con­di­tions res­ult­ing in cas­u­al­iz­a­tion, and a lack of nation­al co-ordin­a­tion in the port sec­tor.”

“We are look­ing at the real world situ­ation, not an eco­nom­ics text­book. We are the people who are out there being pro­duct­ive around the clock and we expect our voices to carry some weight.”

The Mari­time Uni­on is also pro­mot­ing a much great­er role for coastal ship­ping as an import­ant part of the low-impact, envir­on­ment­ally sus­tain­able trans­port mix of the 21st cen­tury.

Coastal ship­ping and region­al ports also provide an import­ant secur­ity and civil defence func­tion, as had been seen dur­ing the Christ­ch­urch Earth­quake dis­aster, when ports provided the main emer­gency logist­ics link for relief sup­plies.