Public rally backs secure work and sustainable Ports

Auck­landers want­ing to make a stand against cas­u­al­isa­tion of work are being invited to join Ports of Auck­land work­ers at a com­munity rally this after­noon.

“Des­pite Ports of Auck­land push­ing ahead with their pro­pos­al to dis­miss nearly 300 work­ers and cas­u­al­ise their jobs, this issue is most cer­tainly not over for these work­ers,” CTU pres­id­ent Helen Kelly said.

“New Zeal­anders are increas­ingly con­cerned about the impact of cas­u­al­isa­tion on their fam­il­ies.”

“We need jobs that are secure and safe, and that’s what the Ports of Auck­land dis­pute is about – a group of work­ers who want the abil­ity to be able to say when they’ll be free to spend time with their fam­ily, without the worry of being called in to work.”

The work­ers are tak­ing their case to the Employ­ment Court to get a rul­ing on wheth­er dis­miss­ing them in the middle of nego­ti­ations for a new col­lect­ive agree­ment is leg­al, Helen Kelly said.

She said that the rally is a chance for the pub­lic of Auck­land to make a stand for secure work, and let the Auck­land Coun­cil know they expect bet­ter from its Coun­cil com­pan­ies, to treat work­ers fairly.

“Len Brown can­not stand by and let this pro­pos­al go ahead on his watch.  He needs to take a stand for job secur­ity for port work­ers and their fam­il­ies.”

The rally will fea­ture speeches from port work­ers, com­munity lead­ers, inter­na­tion­al uni­on sup­port­ers, and oth­ers as well as enter­tain­ment and food at Teal Park to fol­low.  A num­ber of people were plan­ning to come down to the rally after their day at Pasi­fika, she said.

Details:

Rally at Brito­mart, 4pm Sat­urday 10 March

Then on to Teal Park for speeches, food and enter­tain­ment