New Zealand fisheries under spotlight of global union campaign

The New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry is under the spot­light at a major inter­na­tion­al uni­on meet­ing on the Asia Pacific fish­ing industry held in Auck­land this week.

The Asia Pacific Fish­er­ies Work­shop is being held as part of a glob­al uni­on cam­paign “From Catch­er to Counter.”

The new cam­paign is aimed at organ­ising fish­ing work­ers, improv­ing and stand­ard­iz­ing con­di­tions for fish­ing work­ers, and devel­op­ing secure employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies in value added pro­cessing in their rel­ev­ant coun­tries.

The cam­paign is a joint effort by two glob­al uni­on fed­er­a­tions, the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) and the Inter­na­tion­al Uni­on of Food Work­ers (IUF).

Work­ers rep­res­ent­at­ives from fish­er­ies, mari­time and food pro­cessing indus­tries in New Zea­l­and, Aus­tralia, Japan, the Phil­ip­pines, Thai­l­and, Indone­sia, Fiji and Pap­ua New Guinea have been joined by seni­or rep­res­ent­at­ives of the ITF and IUF from the UK and Europe.

The meet­ing will identi­fy pri­or­it­ies for organ­ising work­ers in the Asia Pacific region.

The three day meet­ing also fea­tures speak­ers from the Min­istry of Primary Indus­tries, Uni­ver­sity of Auck­land, mari­time law­yers, and cam­paign­ing groups.

The meet­ing is hos­ted by three New Zea­l­and uni­ons, the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (ITF affil­i­ate), the Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild (ITF affil­i­ate) and the Ser­vice and Food Work­ers Uni­on (IUF affil­i­ate), who have cam­paigned to improve con­di­tions and cre­ate jobs in the New Zea­l­and fish­ing and pro­cessing indus­tries.

ITF/IUF Fish­er­ies Pro­gramme lead­er Liz Black­shaw says the high pro­file of labour prob­lems in the New Zea­l­and fish­ing industry made the meet­ing a good start­ing point to work on fish­ing issues in the Asia Pacific region.

“The effect­ive­ness of recent changes to legis­la­tion around the fish­ing industry has been on the agenda as well as organ­iz­ing in the wider region.”