Maritime Union members to meet during 24 hour strike at Ports of Auckland

The Mar­itime Union says it is com­mit­ted to a res­o­lu­tion in the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute, and mem­bers will be dis­cussing a way for­ward dur­ing a one day strike that starts tonight.

Around 300 work­ers in the Ports of Auck­land con­tain­er ter­mi­nal steve­dor­ing, road, rail, shut­tle and engi­neer­ing ser­vices areas will with­draw labour for a 24 hour peri­od start­ing at 10.59pm on Tues­day 2 Decem­ber.

Mar­itime Union Local 13 Pres­i­dent Denis Carlisle says work­ers will meet on Wednes­day dur­ing the strike to seek a way for­ward.

He says the Union is con­cerned at the approach of man­age­ment to the dis­pute.

“A good start would be for Ports of Auck­land CEO Mr Jens Mad­sen to spend some more time at the nego­ti­at­ing table rather than wors­en­ing the sit­u­a­tion with inflam­ma­to­ry pub­lic state­ments and attacks on the Union.”

“This would send a mes­sage that the Ports of Auck­land were seri­ous about solu­tions.”

Mr Carlisle says the Ports of Auck­land have made a num­ber of uni­lat­er­al pro­pos­als recent­ly, but these had not been the result of nego­ti­a­tion and were a way for man­age­ment to give the impres­sion of action with no sub­stance.

“This is not a real­is­tic way for the Com­pa­ny to approach nego­ti­a­tions.”

“Man­age­ment can make as many offers as they want, but since they failed to pro­vide work­ers with a chance to dis­cuss their pro­pos­als, man­age­men­t’s com­mit­ment to resolv­ing the dis­pute is in ques­tion. It may be part of a broad­er anti-union agen­da.”

He says that due to shift­work at the port, it is impos­si­ble to get all union mem­bers togeth­er to dis­cuss pro­posed set­tle­ments unless there is a stop­page.

“We pro­vid­ed the option of a planned eight hour stop­work meet­ing at a con­ve­nient time, but the Com­pa­ny refused. So we have with­drawn our labour for one day to pro­vide the time and space for mem­bers to dis­cuss the sit­u­a­tion.”

Mr Carlisle says the Union will con­sult its mem­bers for a man­date before it responds to any pro­pos­al.

“The com­pa­ny has made all sorts of pro­pos­als but have not addressed some core issues such as casu­al employ­ment.”

The use of out of town labour in the port had also caused con­cern for Ports of Auck­land work­ers, he says.