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.