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.