Ports of Auckland could be branded first ever port of convenience

The ports of Auck­land in New Zea­l­and could be declared the first ever port of con­veni­ence if man­age­ment does not put a stop to its sav­age attack on uni­on rights, the ITF has warned.

Work­ers rep­res­en­ted by the ITF-affil­i­ated Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ) have been locked in an escal­at­ing dis­pute over a new col­lect­ive bar­gain­ing agree­ment.

The MUNZ and Ports of Auck­land Lim­ited (POAL) had been close to sign­ing a new agree­ment, which saw the uni­on agree­ing to great­er use of a pro­ductiv­ity improve­ment pro­cess known as TRACC.

How­ever, it has recently been repor­ted that POAL man­age­ment is now tak­ing the pro­voc­at­ive step of attempt­ing to remove the col­lect­ive bar­gain­ing agree­ment with MUNZ alto­geth­er.

It is also threat­en­ing the whole work­force of some 300 dock­ers with dis­missal if they do not sign up to an agree­ment imposed by man­age­ment.

In a let­ter to Tony Gib­son, chief exec­ut­ive officer of POAL, ITF pres­id­ent Paddy Crum­lin and ITF gen­er­al sec­ret­ary Dav­id Cock­roft said: “The ITF con­siders this beha­viour as an out­rageous attack on basic trade uni­on rights. If this attempt to force work­ers to aban­don their exist­ing agree­ments con­tin­ues, the ITF will declare the port of Auck­land a ‘port of con­veni­ence’ and will request affil­i­ates around the world , par­tic­u­larly in the dock­ers’ and sea­farers’ sec­tions, to take imme­di­ate law­ful action.”