Maritime workers back locked out Kawerau pulp and paper workers

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is back­ing locked out pulp and paper work­ers at the Essi­ty plant in Kaw­er­au.

The 145 locked out work­ers man­u­fac­ture toi­let paper and belong to the Pulp and Paper Work­ers Union. They have been locked out of their jobs by the employ­er for three weeks.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says work­ers around New Zealand are swing­ing in behind the Kaw­er­au work­ers.

Mr Har­ri­son says mar­itime work­ers are con­tribut­ing finan­cial­ly to the locked out work­ers and would ramp up sup­port if the employ­er con­tin­ued to try and starve the work­ers into sub­mis­sion.

“These are New Zealand work­ers who are being sub­ject­ed to star­va­tion tac­tics by an over­seas owned cor­po­rate that makes a lot of mon­ey in and from New Zealand.”

Mr Har­ri­son says the tac­tic of the com­pa­ny to pre­vent hard­ship with­drawals by the work­ers from their own super­an­nu­a­tion sav­ings is a new low.

He says the work­ers are sim­ply try­ing to main­tain their wages rather than go back­wards as the cost of liv­ing ris­es sharply.

“This is not some big mon­ey grab – it is about keep­ing up with the cost of liv­ing, and we know the man­age­ment and share­hold­ers of Essi­ty are not doing it tough.”

Mr Har­ri­son says the pulp and paper work­ers have been great sup­port­ers of oth­er work­ers in strug­gle and it was time to repay their sol­i­dar­i­ty.

“This is a very sol­id com­mu­ni­ty of essen­tial work­ers and they deserve the sup­port of all New Zealan­ders.”