Maritime unions gather to strengthen South Pacific unionism

Mari­time Uni­ons have met in Auck­land to work towards a Region­al Mari­time Fed­er­a­tion to build uni­on strength through­out the South Pacific.

The meet­ing brought togeth­er the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia (MUA), the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ), Pap­ua New Guinea Mari­time and Trans­port Work­ers Uni­on (MTWU), Aus­trali­an Mari­time Officers Uni­on (AMOU) and Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild (MSG).

All are affil­i­ates of the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF).

ITF Pres­id­ent and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary of the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia Paddy Crum­lin said the pur­pose and focus of the Fed­er­a­tion is to strengthen the capa­city of the uni­ons in the trans­port sec­tor to effect­ively rep­res­ent the interests of their mem­bers, as well as to increase the capa­city of the uni­on move­ment in the region.

Mr Crum­lin said it was a pos­it­ive devel­op­ment to have a num­ber of observ­er uni­ons present at the meet­ing who played import­ant roles in the mari­time industry.

“What we are seek­ing to do is form a Region­al Mari­time Fed­er­a­tion with a real struc­ture that is account­able, with prop­er rules, so we can sit with employ­ers in the region and talk about how we can deliv­er pro­ductiv­ity and safety,” Mr Crum­lin said.

“There are many areas of com­mon interest we are work­ing on, includ­ing the grow­ing off­shore resources sec­tor and the fish­er­ies sec­tor.”

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and hos­ted the meet­ing.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Joe Fleet­wood said the inter­na­tion­al and glob­al nature of the mari­time industry required an inter­na­tion­al approach by uni­ons.

“In the glob­al­ised eco­nomy, uni­ons must oper­ate glob­ally to ensure we are not isol­ated by nation­al bor­ders while cor­por­ate interests dom­in­ate inter­na­tion­al sup­ply chains,” Mr Fleet­wood said.

“The Region­al Mari­time Fed­er­a­tion has the poten­tial to build start a dia­logue with oth­er mari­time and trans­port uni­ons in our region.”

The Auck­land meet­ing fol­lows an inaug­ur­al meet­ing in Port Moresby, Pap­ua New Guinea, in Novem­ber 2013.

MTWU Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Reg McAl­ister said that there were poten­tially tens of thou­sands of work­ers who could be uni­on­ised in PNG, across the bur­geon­ing oil and gas and fish­er­ies sec­tors.

“In PNG, trade uni­on­ism is very much in its infancy. Work­ing togeth­er is what uni­ons are all about and inter­na­tion­al solid­ar­ity can only bene­fit devel­op­ing nations like ours,” Mr McAl­ister said.