Maritime Union statement on Lyttelton port death

Updat­ed Sun­day 8 May 2022

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the death of an Lyt­tel­ton port work­er is the trag­ic loss of life of anoth­er work­er and has shak­en the mar­itime indus­try.

Don Grant, who was a Lyt­tel­ton Port Com­pa­ny employ­ee and a Mar­itime Union mem­ber, died on the morn­ing Mon­day 25 April in a work­place acci­dent.

The fatal­i­ty occurred on the ship ETG Aquar­ius berthed at Cashin Quay at the Port of Lyt­tel­ton dur­ing coal load­ing oper­a­tions.

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says work­mates of the man were dev­as­tat­ed by the death and the Union would offer sup­port to work­ers and the man’s fam­i­ly.

Mr Har­ri­son says the death has hit work­ers in the indus­try hard, as it fol­lows from the work­place death of a young work­er Atiroa Tuaiti at the Ports of Auck­land last week.

A nation­al inquiry into ports health and safe­ty has been announced by the Gov­ern­ment with the sup­port of unions.

“These deaths and seri­ous injuries in the port indus­try should not be hap­pen­ing, and the con­trols and process­es and cul­ture need to be fixed through nation­al stan­dards.”