New Zealand wharfies join international day of action against Qube Ports

New Zea­l­and mari­time work­ers will be ral­ly­ing in sup­port of Aus­trali­an work­ers at Qube Ports on Monday 16 Decem­ber 2024.

Aus­trali­an whar­fies at Qube are stop­ping work at ten ports in an Inter­na­tion­al Day of Action to expose Qube Ports’ refus­al to take safety, fatigue and work-life bal­ance con­cerns ser­i­ously dur­ing bar­gain­ing for a new employ­ment agree­ment cov­er­ing more than 1000 work­ers.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Carl Find­lay says New Zea­l­and whar­fies will be sup­port­ing the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia in their struggle, with del­eg­ates head­ing across the Tas­man in both dir­ec­tions, an inter­na­tion­al video link, and protest events to be held in two New Zea­l­and ports.

TAURANGA inform­a­tion­al pick­et Monday 16 Decem­ber (1pm–3pm)
Hull Road, Mt. Maunganui (Port gates)

GISBORNE inform­a­tion­al pick­et Monday 16 Decem­ber (Morn­ing)
Corner of Pacific Coast High­way and Hirini Street

Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia del­eg­ates and MUNZ offi­cials will be attend­ing these pick­ets and avail­able to talk to media.

Mr Find­lay says Qube man­age­ment need to be aware their actions in Aus­tralia will have con­sequences for their brand and cred­ib­il­ity inter­na­tion­ally unless they change their atti­tude towards their work­force.

He says the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia (MUA) and the Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and (MUNZ) will be “act­ing as one.”

Qube Ports in Aus­tralia is an ASX lis­ted behemoth which has extrac­ted mega-profits in recent years from the pro­ductiv­ity delivered by their hard work­ing employ­ees, and has dog­gedly refused to sit down and nego­ti­ate a new agree­ment with their work­force. 

The MUA says Qube has repeatedly dis­missed safety and fatigue con­cerns and declared it unprof­it­able to oper­ate a busi­ness which takes safety ser­i­ously. 

While whar­fies’ pay has gone back­wards against infla­tion, exec­ut­ive bonuses and share­hold­er dividends have soared. Over the last four years, Qube profits have jumped by 148%.

The MUA has repeatedly called on the com­pany to return to the bar­gain­ing table and engage mean­ing­fully with the safety, fatigue and work-life bal­ance con­cerns that Qube employ­ees are rais­ing.