Ports of Auckland management undermine workers family life

The Mari­time Uni­on says the dis­pute at Ports of Auck­land is about work­ers main­tain­ing a fam­ily life out­side work.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe says mem­bers will be meet­ing tomor­row at a spe­cial meet­ing that will also bring togeth­er fam­ily mem­bers.

Mari­time Uni­on mem­bers at the Ports of Auck­land are tak­ing indus­tri­al action on 23 Decem­ber and Christ­mas Day, 25 Decem­ber.

He says there are sev­er­al key issues that have con­sist­ently been mis­rep­res­en­ted by Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son in his attacks on his work­force, includ­ing the fact that work­ers had turned down pay increases.

“The dis­pute is not about money. It is about ensur­ing secure jobs, decent hours and con­di­tions for work­ers.”

“The idea that main­tain­ing a fam­ily life is some­how up for sale is repug­nant. This sin­is­ter idea that you can just wave around some cash in people’s faces and tell them to give up more time with their fam­ily when they already work long and unso­cial hours.”

Mr Parsloe says pro­posed “flex­ib­il­ity” means that work­ers will be on call for round the clock shift work and lose any semb­lance of job secur­ity through out­sourcing and cas­u­al­iz­a­tion in the future.

“How can you have any bal­ance here between work­ing life and fam­ily com­mit­ments?”

He says that the pres­sure put on fam­il­ies was already severe.

Mr Parsloe says it should be noted that Mari­time Uni­on mem­bers at Ports of Auck­land, and in oth­er areas of the mari­time industry, work on pub­lic hol­i­days.

“Our mem­bers work in 24/7 industry where unso­cial hours, long shifts and hard work in an unfor­giv­ing heavy indus­tri­al envir­on­ment are the norm. Add to this the issue of two income fam­il­ies with both par­ents in the same situ­ation and it is really a shame­ful reflec­tion on the dark ages atti­tudes and val­ues of cor­por­ate man­agers.”

Mr Parsloe says it should be noted the upcom­ing indus­tri­al action was tak­ing place dur­ing a time of year the major­ity of New Zea­l­and man­agers and work­ers were on hol­i­day with their fam­il­ies.

“Our mem­bers already work over this peri­od, yet the employ­er always wants more.”

Mr Parsloe says this brought anoth­er issue to light, that Ports of Auck­land CEO Tony Gib­son had repeatedly put around inform­a­tion about wages and hours of work that were inac­cur­ate and had caused a massive back­lash amongst his own work­force who saw it as an indic­a­tion their employ­er did not value their pro­ductiv­ity.

“The simple fact that any Ports of Auck­land work­er earn­ing the amounts stated by Mr Gib­son would have to be doing hun­dreds of hours of over­time a year, over long shifts, round the clock, pub­lic hol­i­days and week­ends, in highly skilled and respons­ible roles.”

“Our mem­bers see Mr Gib­son throw­ing around these inac­cur­ate fig­ures in pub­lic, yet he has refused to release his own salary and perks, along­side that of his seni­or man­agers, to the pub­lic. This arrog­ance has unsur­pris­ingly res­ul­ted in a break­down of the rela­tion­ship with his own work­force.”

Mr Parsloe says it should be remembered that Ports of Auck­land work­ers had a high level of respons­ib­il­ity oper­at­ing heavy machinery in what was still one of the more dan­ger­ous indus­tries.