New Zealand transport workers back P&O ferry workers after shock mass sacking

New Zea­l­and trans­port work­ers are back­ing UK ferry work­ers after a shock mass sack­ing.

UK ferry oper­at­or P&O Fer­ries has moved to sack 800 UK-based sea­farers and out­source their jobs to non-uni­on, agency work­ers.

New Zea­l­and affil­i­ates of the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) are back­ing the work­ers.

Co-ordin­at­or of the New Zea­l­and ITF affil­i­ates, Paul Tolich, said New Zea­l­and uni­ons have offered their full sup­port to the affected crew mem­bers, who are mem­bers of the UK’s RMT (Rail, Mari­time and Trans­port Work­ers’ Uni­on) and ship officers’ uni­on Nautilus Inter­na­tion­al.

ITF affil­i­ates in New Zea­l­and are the Rail and Mari­time Trans­port Uni­on, the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and, E T?, FIRST Uni­on, the Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild, and the Avi­ation and Mar­ine Engin­eers’ Asso­ci­ation, who togeth­er rep­res­ent tens of thou­sands of New Zea­l­and trans­port work­ers.

Tolich said the tramp­ling of the rights of essen­tial work­ers such as the P&O Fer­ries sea­farers could not be per­mit­ted.

“If it could hap­pen to them there, it could hap­pen to work­ers here. We have to stand up against mul­tina­tion­al com­pan­ies whenev­er they think they can get away with this,” he said.

Uni­ons have launched a glob­al protest peti­tion dir­ec­ted at the major share­hold­er of P&O, glob­al ports con­glom­er­ate DP World. ITF Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Steph­en Cot­ton will deliv­er the peti­tion in per­son to DP World CEO Sul­tan Ahmed bin Sulayem at the company’s headquar­ters in Dubai on March 29.

Tolich said he encour­ages all New Zeal­anders who believe work­ers should get a fair go to sign and share the ITF peti­tion in com­ing days to show their sup­port for the sacked P&O sea­farers.

The ITF affil­i­ated uni­ons in Aotearoa/New Zea­l­and are:

Avi­ation and Mar­ine Engin­eers’ Asso­ci­ation (AMEA)
E Tu
FIRST Uni­on
Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ)
Mer­chant Ser­vice Guild Indus­tri­al Uni­on of Work­ers (MSG)
Rail and Mari­time Trans­port Uni­on (RMTU)