Port expansion row shows management “isolated and out of touch”

The Mari­time Uni­on says the debate about the expan­sion of the Ports of Auck­land shows a port com­pany man­age­ment who were out of touch and isol­ated.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe says the debate about the port expan­sion was an example of the intransigence the work­ers at the Port are facing.

He points out that a “take it or leave it” atti­tude of port man­age­ment had exten­ded from their own work­force in the cur­rent indus­tri­al dis­pute, and was now evid­ent in an agenda to privat­ize and expand the port regard­less of pub­lic con­cerns.

Mr Parsloe says while the Mari­time Uni­on is 100% behind a busy work­ing port in the heart of Auck­land, it under­stands the need to work through the issues in a demo­crat­ic way to find a nego­ti­ated solu­tion which includes shar­ing this beau­ti­ful piece of land with the people of Auck­land.

“We have to share the water­front in Auck­land, it can be used cre­at­ively to run the Port and so that recre­ation­al users can enjoy it water­front. The Port is single minded in its plans – it is basic­ally say­ing stuff the work­ers and stuff the city.”

“As we have exper­i­enced, this man­age­ment team don’t believe in nego­ti­ation. They won’t nego­ti­ate with their work­force. On the port expan­sion issue, they won’t even nego­ti­ate with their own­ers, the people of Auck­land.”

Mr Parsloe says POAL man­age­ment actions threatened to des­troy the rela­tion­ships that under­pinned the future of the port.

The oth­er irony that won’t be lost is the con­trast between the port man­age­ment claim that it will lose busi­ness without cas­u­al­ising the work­force and its jus­ti­fic­a­tion for expan­sion based on massive growth.

“This is a port man­age­ment and a CEO who has spent months bag­ging his own busi­ness, run­ning it down, say­ing it was doomed. But at the same time, POAL expan­sion plans show it is a port whose future is assured.”

Over the last 20 years, con­tain­er growth had aver­aged 6.74% growth, but improve­ments in pro­ductiv­ity had allowed the port to do more with less space.

Mr Parsloe says while the Mari­time Uni­on did not often agree with the state­ments of Heart of the City chief exec­ut­ive Alex Swney, he says the Uni­on thought that his request that there was an oppor­tun­ity for a review of the port’s plans by the people of Auck­land was a good one.

“We believe that the decision on issues like port expan­sion, privat­iz­a­tion and out­sourcing should not be left with a self-inter­ested man­age­ment cabal pur­su­ing their own opaque agen­das.”