Powerful Global Alliance aims to Halt Job-Killing Port Automation

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) has joined a pow­er­ful new Glob­al Mar­itime Alliance com­mit­ted to halt­ing the expan­sion of job-killing automa­tion in ports world­wide.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay was a sig­na­to­ry to the his­toric “Lis­bon Sum­mit Res­o­lu­tion” signed this week in Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal, at a spe­cial Anti-Automa­tion Con­fer­ence of the Inter­na­tion­al Dock­work­ers Coun­cil.

The res­o­lu­tion unites dock­work­er (port work­er) unions from around the globe who have pledged to col­lec­tive­ly engage in coor­di­nat­ed glob­al strike action against any com­pa­ny that invests in automa­tion at the expense of work­ers.

The res­o­lu­tion, for­mal­ly titled “Pro­tect­ing Employ­ment, Com­mu­ni­ties and Col­lec­tive Bar­gain­ing against Job-Destruc­tive Automa­tion”, cre­ates an inter­na­tion­al net­work for union coor­di­na­tion.

The Lis­bon sum­mit brought togeth­er hun­dreds of dock­er and port work­er trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tives from more than 60 coun­tries, estab­lish­ing a his­toric frame­work for glob­al action.

Mr Find­lay says this is a his­toric and nec­es­sary step for dock­work­ers and all work­ers.

“This fight is not the­o­ret­i­cal. It’s about pro­tect­ing liveli­hoods right here in New Zealand.”

“We have already proven this bat­tle can be won. At the Port of Auck­land, MUNZ suc­cess­ful­ly fought and stopped a dis­as­trous, ill-con­ceived automa­tion project. That project was a cost­ly fail­ure that vin­di­cat­ed our warn­ings, and we are proud to have saved hun­dreds of jobs for Kiwis.”

Mr. Find­lay says the push for automa­tion comes when New Zealand’s unem­ploy­ment rate ris­ing and com­mu­ni­ties are already under severe finan­cial pres­sure.

“At a time when Kiwis are fac­ing a cost-of-liv­ing cri­sis and grow­ing job inse­cu­ri­ty, it is reck­less for cor­po­ra­tions to pur­sue automa­tion with absolute­ly no plan for the work­ers and com­mu­ni­ties they intend to dis­place,” Mr. Find­lay says.

Mr Find­lay says good jobs are the lifeblood of our econ­o­my, as they pro­vide the incomes fam­i­lies need to live, but automa­tion is a direct threat to those incomes.

“We have to ask: will the CEOs and Boards push­ing these schemes be auto­mat­ed out of their own jobs? If not, why is it only work­ing peo­ple who are expect­ed to sac­ri­fice their futures for the ben­e­fit of high­ly paid man­age­ment and share­hold­ers?”

Mr. Find­lay says the glob­al alliance is not opposed to tech­nol­o­gy, but to its use as a weapon to elim­i­nate work­ers.

“As was made clear in Lis­bon, we are not against inno­va­tion, we are against its use to erase work­ers from the map,” says Mr. Find­lay.

The new Glob­al Mar­itime Alliance was inspired by the ILA’s suc­cess­ful strike action in the Unit­ed States in 2024, which secured a con­tract pro­tect­ing all work­ers from automa­tion. The Lis­bon Res­o­lu­tion now extends that prin­ci­ple world­wide.

“MUNZ will ful­ly sup­port this cam­paign,” says Mr. Find­lay.

“Our mes­sage to port com­pa­nies in New Zealand and around the world is sim­ple: Peo­ple Over Prof­its.”