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Ukrainian crew’s onboard protest in Lyttelton backed by Maritime Union

The Mar­itime Union says that a group of Ukrain­ian fish­er­men in Lyt­tel­ton are vic­tims of the lack of reg­u­la­tion of the fish­ing indus­try. The 27 crew mem­bers are cur­rent­ly onboard the FV Malakhov Kur­gan in the port of Lyt­tel­ton where they are refus­ing to leave until they are paid back­pay owing to them, and held […]

You try living on youth rates or the minimum wage

The upris­ing amongst New Zealand youth against low pay and inse­cure jobs is being backed by the Mar­itime Union.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says all work­ers should sup­port young peo­ple who are tak­ing part in cam­paign activ­i­ties, includ­ing indus­tri­al action at fast food out­lets and the recent street ral­lies and con­certs.

“What we are see­ing is the inevitable reac­tion from work­ing class young peo­ple who have become a low-wage gen­er­a­tion.”

Unions get result for Indonesian crew

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand and Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) have obtained back­pay for a group of Indone­sian fish­er­men who jumped ship last week.

The nine Indone­sian crew mem­bers left the fish­ing trawler Mar­inui in Dunedin on Fri­day 10 March.

The crew mem­bers were sent to Christchurch where they were inter­viewed by Mar­itime Union offi­cials, and then trav­elled to Auck­land Inter­na­tion­al Air­port today where they were met by union offi­cials rep­re­sent­ing the ITF.

Port Unions say Port of Lyttelton should be held in local ownership

The two Unions rep­re­sent­ing port work­ers in New Zealand have come out against a pro­posed deal that would see the Port of Lyt­tel­ton pass into effec­tive con­trol of multi­na­tion­al cor­po­rate Hutchi­son.

The Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union (RMTU) and the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) are work­ing togeth­er to pro­mote local con­trol of the port.

Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Wayne But­son says the sell-off means a vital piece of New Zealand infra­struc­ture will be effec­tive­ly going into over­seas con­trol, with seri­ous reper­cus­sions for the New Zealand econ­o­my.

Maritime Union says it’s time to connect the dots on Flag of Convenience fishing

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed New Zealand sign­ing up to an inter­na­tion­al crack­down on ille­gal fish­ing – which also pro­vides a clear oppor­tu­ni­ty to solve the abuse and exploita­tion of mar­itime work­ers.

Fish­eries min­is­ters from Aus­tralia, Britain, Cana­da, Chile, Namib­ia and New Zealand have agreed to a plan which will mean glob­al track­ing of fish­ing ves­sels, as well as an online data­base of their names, loca­tion and his­to­ry, to help uncov­er ille­gal fish­ing.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the plan means that “half of the prob­lem” is being seri­ous­ly addressed.

European dockers victory shows global tide turning against “pirate capitalism”

The Mar­itime Union says a major Union vic­to­ry in Europe for job secu­ri­ty for port work­ers sig­nals a turn­ing of the tide in the glob­al mar­itime indus­try.

The Euro­pean Par­lia­ment vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly on 18 Jan­u­ary 2006 to throw out a plan to extend cor­po­rate con­trol over Euro­pean ports.

On 16 Jan­u­ary, 6000 dock­ers from 16 Euro­pean coun­tries mount­ed a strong protest against the plan in Stras­bourg, France, in defence of jobs, work­ing con­di­tions, health and safe­ty, and the qual­i­ty of port ser­vices.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says it is a major vic­to­ry that was gained by an active cam­paign by work­ers – and which has impli­ca­tions for the New Zealand indus­try.

Maritime Union members will refuse to work whaling ships

The Mar­itime Union says its mem­bers will refuse to work with any Japan­ese ship involved in whal­ing that vis­its a New Zealand port.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union sup­ports the two envi­ron­men­tal groups Green­peace and Sea Shep­herd in their attempts to end Japan­ese whal­ing in the South­ern Ocean.

Mr Han­son says the esca­lat­ing sit­u­a­tion increased the poten­tial for Japan­ese ships and planes involved in the whal­ing oper­a­tion to vis­it New Zealand.

Maritime Union calls for fishing industry wage hike

The Mar­itime Union has wel­comed the announce­ment by Min­is­ter of Immi­gra­tion David Cun­liffe that the cur­rent sys­tem reg­u­lat­ing over­seas crews in the fish­ing indus­try will be over­hauled.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says offi­cial recog­ni­tion that crews are being under­paid and exploit­ed is an impor­tant first step.

Mr Han­son says he agrees with the Gov­ern­ment the seafood indus­try is impor­tant for New Zealand, but this does not trans­late into allow­ing employ­ers to do what­ev­er they want.

A grim Christmas for foreign fishing crews

The Mar­itime Union says the arrest of shipjumpers in Nel­son is not solv­ing the cause of the prob­lem.
Six Viet­namese shipjumpers were arrest­ed on Tues­day night in Nel­son.
Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says action is need­ed to ensure that crew mem­bers are being employed under decent con­di­tions.
“This Christ­mas, there will be over­seas crews work­ing in New Zealand waters in dan­ger­ous con­di­tions, for low pay, suf­fer­ing abuse and exploita­tion, while we turn a blind eye because it is mak­ing a fat prof­it for some­one.”

Time for lid to be lifted on fishing industry disgrace

The Mar­itime Union says the shipjump­ing of eight Indone­sians in Welling­ton from the fish­ing ves­sel ‘San Lib­er­a­tore’ was entire­ly pre­dictable as the ship had a his­to­ry of prob­lems.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Union had to inter­vene on two occa­sions this year when over­seas crew mem­bers on the ‘San Lib­er­a­tore’ were being made to do water­front work nor­mal­ly done by New Zealand work­ers.

“There have been Gov­ern­ment reports say­ing there is abuse going on aboard these fish­ing ves­sels in New Zealand waters – why don’t we put the spot­light on the com­pa­nies oper­at­ing these ves­sels, rather than the work­ers?”