Port unions take action on Russian flagged ships

The two uni­ons rep­res­ent­ing work­ers in New Zea­l­and ports say their mem­bers are reluct­ant to work Rus­si­an flagged ships in New Zea­l­and ports and are look­ing at meth­ods of protest fol­low­ing the out­break of war.

Both New Zea­l­and uni­ons are affil­i­ated to the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion, which has called for an imme­di­ate cease­fire in hos­til­it­ies, for the con­flict to return to the dip­lo­mat­ic level, and respect for inter­na­tion­al human rights and human­it­ari­an law, fol­low­ing the mil­it­ary escal­a­tion in Ukraine.

Rail and Mari­time Trans­port Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Wayne But­son says work­ers may deliv­er let­ters of protest to the Cap­tain of any Rus­si­an flagged ves­sels in New Zea­l­and ports.

He says it is import­ant to note any protest was not anti-Rus­si­an crews, but against aggres­sion and war decisions at the lead­er­ship level.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says many Rus­si­an and Ukrain­i­an crews worked in New Zea­l­and waters as both nations had big mari­time indus­tries.

The Mari­time Uni­on had dealt with exploit­a­tion and mis­treat­ment and assisted in the repat­ri­ation of crew mem­bers from both coun­tries.

He says there is not a large num­ber of Rus­si­an flagged ves­sels in New Zea­l­and ports but there are some includ­ing large fish fact­ory trawl­ers in ports such as Lyt­telton.

Many ‘Flag of Con­veni­ence’ ves­sels had Rus­si­an and Ukrain­i­an crew.

There would prob­ably be issues around crew mem­bers want­ing to repat­ri­ate to their home coun­try, he says.