Maritime Union of New Zealand says it will stop work on blacklisted ship in Australian dispute

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and says it will stop work on the ship involved in the Port Kembla water­front dis­pute in Aus­tralia if it comes to New Zea­l­and.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says if the MV Capo Noli enters any port in New Zea­l­and, the dis­pute in Port Kembla will be imme­di­ately exten­ded to New Zea­l­and.

The Uni­on has offered its full sup­port to the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia, who are fight­ing an attempt by mul­tina­tion­al ship­ping cor­por­a­tion CSL to make Third World crews do water­front work in Port Kembla in New South Wales.

The Maltese flagged MV Capo Noli is call­ing at Port Kembla loaded with Gypsum. The ves­sel is owned by Coe­cler­ici Armatori Spa in Gen­oa but man­aged and crewed by Elburg Ship­man­age­ment Phils Inc. She is chartered to Brit­ania Bulk­ers UK and sub chartered to CSL Ship­ping.

The crew has been told to dis­charge cargo using the ship’s cranes des­pite an inter­na­tion­al agree­ment that clearly states that dock­ers work, such as load­ing and unload­ing of ships, should not be done by sea­farers.

Mr Han­son says a nation­al meet­ing of the Uni­on today offered its full sup­port to the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia through the Trans Tas­man Fed­er­a­tion.

“We are in reg­u­lar con­tact with the MUA and will work as one with them on this case, includ­ing black­list­ing any ships involved in this dis­pute that come to New Zea­l­and, and send­ing del­eg­ates to Aus­tralia to help with pick­ets.”

Mr Han­son says that the issue is about stop­ping glob­al com­pan­ies from exploit­ing loc­al and Third World work­ers.

“Over­seas crews are often paid very low wages, and if com­pan­ies move them ashore their goal is to attack the wages and con­di­tions and jobs of loc­al work­ers. It is the sin­is­ter face of cor­por­ate glob­al­iz­a­tion and we are going to fight it every step of the way.”

Mr Han­son says the Mari­time Uni­on is very con­cerned about the move­ment of cas­u­al short term labour across bor­ders to under­cut wages and con­di­tions using free trade agree­ments.

He says the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) rep­res­ent­ing trans­port work­ers around the world is back­ing the Uni­on stance against what it terms “self load­ing” by ships crews.