Ports of Auckland workers remain united

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and mem­bers at Ports of Auck­land have backed their Uni­on with a vote of con­fid­ence.

A full meet­ing of Mari­time Uni­on mem­bers at the Ports of Auck­land was held Monday 12 Novem­ber 7–9am at Auck­land’s Mari­time Club.

Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Pres­id­ent Garry Parsloe says mem­bers voted with over­whelm­ing sup­port to back the Uni­on to achieve a set­tle­ment of the ongo­ing dis­pute.

The mem­bers have reluct­antly accep­ted con­ces­sions the Uni­on has made in the facil­it­a­tion to try and get pro­gress, he says.

“How­ever, Ports of Auck­land work­ers are shocked their employ­er con­tin­ues to want to des­troy basic terms and con­di­tions that provide for some bal­ance in this 24/7 industry and which threaten the health and safety of the work­force.”

Mr Parsloe says uni­on mem­bers will not agree to unfair ros­ter­ing which would under­mine fam­ily life, with no cer­tainty of start times, the abil­ity for cas­u­als to be used for any duties thereby remov­ing a career path for work­ers at the port, and the loss of the lim­ited right of one guar­an­teed week­end off in every three.

He says work­ers will not sign a POAL con­tract that con­tin­ues to con­tain a con­tract­ing out pro­vi­sion after what they have been through.

“Our mem­bers will fight these changes how­ever they can.”

Mr Parsloe says any decision to take indus­tri­al action would be very ser­i­ously con­sidered as we are aware of the costs to our mem­bers and dis­rup­tion to the city.

“We can­not how­ever stand by and let POAL pro­gress this attack on our mem­bers and their fam­il­ies.”

Ports of Auck­land work­ers at the meet­ing called on the May­or of Auck­land to sack the CEO and the Board and restore a mod­er­ate man­age­ment who respects its work­force, says Mr Parsloe.

“They do this in the name of their fam­il­ies, the city of Auck­land and New Zea­l­and work­ers.  The may­or and coun­cil can fix this if they want to.”