Maritime Union to meet with Port of Napier in jobs dispute

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is step­ping up efforts to secure the future of Napi­er mar­itime work­ers.

The four nation­al offi­cials of the Mar­itime Union are arriv­ing in Napi­er tomor­row  to meet with Port of Napi­er Lim­it­ed CEO Garth Cowie at 11am.

The Port of Napi­er has award­ed a con­tain­er steve­dor­ing con­tract to out of town com­pa­ny ISO who are a noto­ri­ous anti-union employ­er.

25 per­ma­nent jobs and 60 casu­al jobs at Hawkes Bay Steve­dor­ing Ser­vices are in jeop­ardy as a result.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the mes­sage they will be bring­ing to Napi­er is that the Port Com­pa­ny has a respon­si­bil­i­ty for their work­ers and to ensure secure local jobs.

“If we don’t get a sat­is­fac­to­ry result we are going to be forced to con­sid­er nation­al indus­tri­al action.”

Mr Han­son says the sit­u­a­tion is snow­balling with strong inter­est from inter­na­tion­al unions and the mar­itime indus­try about the out­come of the talks.

He says the Mar­itime Union is in con­tact with over­seas Unions includ­ing the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia and the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion head office in Lon­don.

Sup­port has also been guar­an­teed by the Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union who also have mem­bers at the Port of Napi­er.

“We are in the process of con­tact­ing all ship­ping com­pa­nies that use Napi­er to explain to them the seri­ous sit­u­a­tion and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of delays and dis­rup­tion.”