New Zealand maritime workers back Australian tug crews in Svitzer dispute

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is back­ing Aus­tralian mar­itime crews fac­ing a lock out from their multi­na­tion­al cor­po­rate employ­er.

The entire Aus­tralian seago­ing work­force of Svitzer Towage is being locked out from Fri­day 18 Novem­ber, which will result in major dis­rup­tions in the sup­ply chain.

Svitzer is a ful­ly owned sub­sidiary of multi­na­tion­al ship­ping con­glom­er­ate AP Moller Maer­sk and receive fed­er­al fund­ing for pro­vid­ing essen­tial towage ser­vices in major Aus­tralian ports.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says New Zealand mar­itime work­ers are fol­low­ing the sit­u­a­tion close­ly and had offered sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty to affect­ed crew mem­bers in Aus­tralia.

He says Aus­tralian man­age­ment are attempt­ing claw­backs of wages, reduc­ing job secu­ri­ty, and under­min­ing safe­ty stan­dards, for their Aus­tralian tug crews.

“These tug crews do an amaz­ing job, includ­ing the res­cue of ships in dan­ger­ous con­di­tions, such as the strick­en Port­land Bay in July this year.”

Mr Har­ri­son not­ed Svitzer’s Dan­ish par­ent com­pa­ny is expect­ed to deliv­er more than $30 bil­lion in prof­it to its share­hold­ers this year, after achiev­ing a record prof­it last year of $21 bil­lion as they ben­e­fit­ed from unprece­dent­ed ship­ping prices dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

He says the Mar­itime Union is extend­ing its sup­port to the three Aus­tralian unions involved in the dis­pute – the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia (MUA), the Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Marine and Pow­er Engi­neers (AIMPE), and the Aus­tralian Marine Offi­cers Union (AMOU).

Trans­port unions from around the world are cur­rent­ly meet­ing in Zagreb, Croa­t­ia, and will be form­ing a unit­ed glob­al response to the actions of Svitzer.