Maritime Union offers thanks to Jacinda Ardern

The Mar­itime Union has offered its thanks to Jacin­da Ardern for her ser­vice to New Zealand, on her announce­ment she will be resign­ing as Prime Min­is­ter next month.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says Ms Ardern has led the coun­try through unprece­dent­ed times.

“Jacin­da Ardern will be remem­bered as one of New Zealand’s great Prime Min­is­ters.”

He says her response and lead­er­ship with events such as the Christchurch mosque shoot­ing and the COVID pan­dem­ic showed strong and empa­thet­ic lead­er­ship.

Mr Har­ri­son says under Jacin­da Ardern’s lead­er­ship, major progress has been made in the mar­itime trans­port indus­try.

“More progress for the mar­itime indus­try has been made with this Gov­ern­ment than in decades and this should be giv­en more promi­nence.”

He says her lega­cy of her time as Prime Min­is­ter includes the resur­gence of coastal ship­ping, improv­ing health and safe­ty stan­dards, and Fair Pay Agree­ments (FPA) which will improve the lives of the most vul­ner­a­ble work­ers.

The Mar­itime Union is cur­rent­ly orga­niz­ing for an FPA in the ports indus­try.

Mr Har­ri­son says it is an unfor­tu­nate real­i­ty that the Prime Min­is­ter and oth­ers have had to con­tend with a degen­er­at­ing qual­i­ty of pub­lic debate and per­son­al attacks.

“We real­ly acknowl­edge how the Prime Min­is­ter has con­tin­ued to serve the peo­ple of New Zealand in this envi­ron­ment at a per­son­al cost to her­self and her fam­i­ly.”

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is an affil­i­ate of the Labour Par­ty.