Maritime Union says Ports of Auckland pay tactics have backfired

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has gone on the front foot in the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute, say­ing the port com­pa­ny has bad­ly mis­han­dled the sit­u­a­tion.

Mar­itime Union mem­bers at the Ports of Auck­land vot­ed to take two day strike action start­ing 2 Octo­ber, after man­age­ment start­ed to make unau­tho­rized pay­ments into bank accounts.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Auck­land Water­front Local 13 Pres­i­dent Denis Carlisle says Ports of Auck­land man­age­ment have gen­er­at­ed a back­lash amongst work­ers.

“The deci­sion to strike was a unan­i­mous vote by our mem­bers, which is high­ly unusu­al, and indi­cates the depth of feel­ing here.”

There are sev­er­al key issues that need to be dealt with imme­di­ate­ly if the port com­pa­ny want­ed to regain its cred­i­bil­i­ty, he says.

“The first issue is that the com­pa­ny has made unau­tho­rized pay­ments into mem­bers bank accounts, for a pay increase that has­n’t been agreed to.”

He says Ports of Auck­land have uni­lat­er­al­ly start­ed pay­ing work­ers the 3.25% wage increase that the com­pa­ny wants to give them – despite that offer being reject­ed by work­ers.

Mr Carlisle says the “patron­iz­ing” pay­ments are clear­ly an attempt to under­mine nego­ti­a­tions and cre­ate divi­sion.

“It is dawn­ing on man­age­ment now that they have stuffed up, and they are try­ing to jus­ti­fy them­selves. They should just apol­o­gize to the mem­bers and get on with prop­er nego­ti­a­tions, rather than try­ing to be clever.”

He says Mar­itime Union mem­bers have indi­vid­u­al­ly request­ed in writ­ing that the 3.25% extra pay­ments be stopped, but man­age­ment have ignored these requests.

“The sec­ond issue is our mem­bers have seen a dra­mat­ic increase in car­go han­dling over the last two years, which has affect­ed their fam­i­lies and work­ers per­son­al lives.”

He says that Mar­itime Union mem­bers under­take around the clock shift work on a 24/7 basis, work­ing with heavy mov­ing machin­ery in all weath­er con­di­tions.

Mr Carlisle says that liv­ing costs in Auck­land have sky­rock­et­ed, includ­ing get­ting to work out­side pub­lic trans­port hours, and hous­ing and accom­mo­da­tion.

“Our work­ers deserve a seri­ous share of the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty that their hard work gen­er­ates.”

He says the Mar­itime Union also want to bring in a small group of Planner/Supervisors and Car­go Offi­cers to join the Col­lec­tive Agree­ment, which is being resist­ed by the com­pa­ny for no good rea­son.

Mr Carlisle says man­age­ment will have to come around to the real­i­ty that they are deal­ing with an orga­nized and intel­li­gent work­force who will not accept sec­ond best.

“Ports of Auck­land want a qual­i­ty, pro­duc­tive and skilled work­force. Soon­er or lat­er they will real­ize they have to pay for it.”