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)