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.”