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Maritime Union pays respects to Rod Donald – a friend of the Union

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has paid its respects to Green Par­ty co-leader Rod Don­ald, who died in the week­end.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says he has offered the con­do­lences of mar­itime work­ers to Mr Don­ald’s fam­i­ly and his polit­i­cal fam­i­ly, the Green Par­ty.

Kiwi maritime workers offer international solidarity across the Tasman

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says it will sup­port the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia and the Aus­tralian union move­ment in their fight to pro­tect the rights of work­ers.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Aus­tralian fed­er­al Gov­ern­men­t’s plans to attack job stan­dards for work­ers was expe­ri­enced on the New Zealand side of the Tas­man Sea in the 1990s, with the Employ­ment Con­tracts Act (ECA) intro­duced by the Nation­al Gov­ern­ment in 1991.

Department fiddles while crew members jump ship

The Mar­itime Union says the Depart­ment of Labour’s stance on two Viet­namese fish­er­men who have jumped ship in Nel­son is unac­cept­able.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Depart­ment of Labour has stat­ed in the media it will not act until for­mal­ly noti­fied by the fish­ing ves­sel char­ter­ers that crew mem­bers are miss­ing.

“In this case, the two miss­ing crew mem­bers have obvi­ous­ly jumped ship from the Sky 75, like the ten Indone­sian crew mem­bers before them, and these two fish­er­men are prob­a­bly liv­ing rough.”

Free trade deals could mean overseas labour trafficking in ports

The Mar­itime Union says that free trade deals and recent GATS nego­ti­a­tions have the poten­tial to intro­duce cut­price over­seas labour into New Zealand ports.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the use of ship’s crews and import­ed labour on the water­front is becom­ing a major prob­lem around the world.

“Inter­na­tion­al mar­itime com­pa­nies are already mov­ing low-wage, short term and casu­al labour across bor­ders to work in ports around the world.”

Maritime Union calls for action on Cook Strait ferries

The Mar­itime Union says that it has had enough of cow­boy tac­tics on the Cook Strait after fur­ther rev­e­la­tions of anoth­er poten­tial fer­ry
ground­ing that was nar­row­ly avoid­ed.

The Union is con­cerned about reports the fer­ry ‘San­ta Regi­na’ was on auto pilot in the Tory Chan­nel on June 9 in breach of Mar­itime Safe­ty Author­i­ty rules.

Maritime Union backs Greenpeace protest action against bottom trawling

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is sup­port­ing the direct action by Green­peace activists on the Rain­bow War­rior against bot­tom trawl­ing fish­ing ves­sels in the Tas­man Sea.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says it has become obvi­ous that over­fish­ing and bad prac­tices such as bot­tom trawl­ing were wreck­ing the envi­ron­ment, and would also destroy the indus­try that depends on the envi­ron­ment.

Pink Panther Plan won’t solve ship jumping crews

The Mar­itime Union says a plan by the Depart­ment of Labour to track down ship jump­ing crews by employ­ing a pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor is ques­tion­able at the least.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says that pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tors may be in favour of the plan as it will ensure an end­less income stream for them in the future, but it would not solve ship jump­ing.

Fishing industry report confirms worst fears

The Mar­itime Union says the release of a Gov­ern­ment report into employ­ment con­di­tions in the New Zealand fish­ing indus­try has con­firmed its worst fears.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the report has shone light on dark places in regard to the treat­ment of over­seas crews.

“We are dis­ap­point­ed at the Gov­ern­ment response to the report con­sid­er­ing what is actu­al­ly going on onboard some of these trawlers.”

Ferry company safety shortcuts not acceptable

The Mar­itime Union says attempts to sack the crew of the Cook Strait fer­ry “Kent” by employ­ers Strait Ship­ping is dri­ven by attempts by man­age­ment to bypass new safe­ty reg­u­la­tions.

Mar­itime Union Welling­ton Branch Sec­re­tary Mike Williams says the threats to sack a crew is because the work­ers will not com­pro­mise on health and safe­ty.

A maritime tale of struggle and betrayal

“Betrayed: the sto­ry of Cana­di­an Mer­chant Sea­men” is a hard­hit­ting new Cana­di­an doc­u­men­tary on the strug­gle of Cana­di­an mer­chant sea­men against the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment and ship own­ers which led to an inter­na­tion­al strike in 1949.

Mar­itime work­ers in New Zealand lent their sup­port to the Cana­di­an sea­men who fought a des­per­ate bat­tle to pro­tect their jobs and con­di­tions.

Doc­u­men­tary mak­er Elaine Brière is pro­mot­ing “Betrayed” in New Zealand with two screen­ings in Auck­land and Welling­ton, host­ed by the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand.