Maritime Union welcomes Mayor’s intervention in Port of Auckland dispute

In a response to a let­ter received today from the May­or of Auck­land Len Brown on the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute, the Mar­itime Union says it is com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing to make every effort to set­tle a col­lec­tive agree­ment with POAL.

The May­or has stat­ed to the Mar­itime Union and to POAL that he holds a strong expec­ta­tion that rec­om­men­da­tions from the facil­i­ta­tion process are used as a vehi­cle for end­ing the dis­pute.

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says the Union can assure the May­or it will con­sid­er and respond in a pos­i­tive way to the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Facil­i­ta­tor due to be released in the next week.

“We have worked hard and bar­gained in good faith before and dur­ing Facil­i­ta­tion to set­tle a fair and bal­anced col­lec­tive agree­ment that pro­vides greater flex­i­bil­i­ty on the Port while pro­vid­ing our mem­bers with secu­ri­ty of employ­ment, time off with fam­i­ly, pre­dictabil­i­ty and a safe ros­ter.”

Mr Parsloe says the goal for the Union is to reach such a set­tle­ment to this long stand­ing dis­pute and avert the pos­si­bil­i­ty of indus­tri­al action.

He says over the last two days the Mar­itime Union have been brief­ing the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Fed­er­a­tion (in NZ and glob­al­ly) and the Coun­cil of Trade Unions on the cur­rent sta­tus of the dis­pute and the need to final­ly resolve a dis­pute which has had huge costs to our mem­bers, to busi­ness­es and to the com­mu­ni­ty.

It is clear this dis­pute can be resolved if there is a will­ing­ness of POAL to do so, says Mr Parsloe.

“To date there has been lit­tle will­ing­ness to address fun­da­men­tal issues like cer­tain­ty re start times and time off, which are vital­ly impor­tant to a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment and the abil­i­ty to have time with fam­i­ly, and com­mit­ting to not con­tract­ing out our work as they tried to do ear­li­er this year.”

“Our mem­bers are part of this com­mu­ni­ty and they have the right to be employed on a fair and bal­anced col­lec­tive agree­ment and we wel­come the Mayor’s strong state­ment about the urgent need for a col­lec­tive agree­ment to be set­tled between MUNZ and POAL.”