Maritime Union members will refuse to work whaling ships

The Mar­itime Union says its mem­bers will refuse to work with any Japan­ese ship involved in whal­ing that vis­its a New Zealand port.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union sup­ports the two envi­ron­men­tal groups Green­peace and Sea Shep­herd in their attempts to end Japan­ese whal­ing in the South­ern Ocean.

Mr Han­son says the esca­lat­ing sit­u­a­tion increased the poten­tial for Japan­ese ships and planes involved in the whal­ing oper­a­tion to vis­it New Zealand.

“Mar­itime union­ists will not be work­ing those ships.”

He says the Mar­itime Union sees the whal­ing issue as a part of a wider mar­itime cri­sis with over­fish­ing, exploita­tion of mar­itime work­ers and “flag of con­ve­nience” ship­ping.

Mr Han­son says that when the polite approach fails, the use of non-vio­lent direct action is the best method.

“In many cas­es the exploita­tion of the mar­itime envi­ron­ment goes hand in hand with the mis­treat­ment of mar­itime work­ers, but because it is out of sight, out of mind off the coast, it is easy to ignore.”

He says the New Zealand Gov­ern­ment should send a frigate to observe and pro­vide moral sup­port for the protests.

“The Japan­ese whalers are try­ing to bluff their way through, but a strong unit­ed mes­sage now could be the final push need­ed to end this prac­tice.”