Push for cheap labour trafficking in Oz shows where free trade deals are leading

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand says that grow­ing pres­sure to bring unskilled labour into Aus­tralia under a free trade agree­ment has con­firmed its worst fears.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says that pro­pos­als to allow com­pa­nies to import unskilled Chi­nese work­ers into Aus­tralian ports and con­struc­tion sites gave a clear mes­sage to New Zealand work­ers.

“This is the equiv­a­lent of a huge neon sign flash­ing out the warn­ing that free trade deals will inevitably lead to a col­lapse in wages, con­di­tions and work­ers rights. It is time we have a nation­al debate on free trade, and get the issue away from the con­trol of bureau­crats and pri­vate inter­est groups.”

The Aus­tralian Finan­cial Review has report­ed the Chi­nese Gov­ern­ment has put Can­ber­ra on notice it would demand Aus­tralia go fur­ther on the issue of tem­po­rary entry of work­ers in the free trade agree­ment now under nego­ti­a­tion.

Ship­ping, con­struc­tion and min­ing are three key areas that Bei­jing has nom­i­nat­ed as key to the labour nego­ti­a­tions that start at the end of this year.

The Chi­nese gov­ern­ment has used sep­a­rate World Trade Organ­i­sa­tion nego­ti­a­tions to raise the issue of Aus­tralian port dereg­u­la­tion, by want­i­ng to have ship crews load­ing and unload­ing ships, rather than local work­ers.

The Aus­tralian Finan­cial Review said Chi­na might be inter­est­ed in a point-to-point Chi­nese owned and staffed ship­ping line stretch­ing from inland Aus­tralia to inland Chi­na.

Mr Han­son says the recent failed attempt by Hong Kong based multi­na­tion­al Hutchi­son to buy into the Port of Lyt­tel­ton ear­li­er this year was an exam­ple of the “slip­pery slope of free trade.”

“Obvi­ous­ly the multi­na­tion­als would much rather have low-cost labour employed under Chi­nese con­di­tions work­ing in New Zealand, just as they would in Aus­tralia. Chi­na is a police state where work­ers have no inde­pen­dent unions or right to orga­nize, and those con­di­tions are going to be com­ing down the line to us unless we start to ques­tion the free trade syn­drome.”

Mr Han­son says New Zealand has been hyp­no­tized with pro­pa­gan­da about the ben­e­fits of mar­ket access for New Zealand prod­ucts to over­seas mar­kets.

“How­ev­er no one seems to grasp that Chi­na will want some­thing out of the deal, and they have now put it on the table for Aus­tralia. Why should the sit­u­a­tion be any dif­fer­ent in New Zealand?”

He says it is very impor­tant the issue does not get turned into a debate on race and immi­gra­tion, but instead focussed on the real issue of free trade being used to play work­ers off against each oth­er in a glob­al race to the bot­tom.

“It is the old tac­tic of divide and rule, turn­ing work­ers against work­ers, on a grand scale. The issue is about wages, con­di­tions and the right of all work­ers to secure jobs and human rights. There’s no free in free trade for the work­ers.”

Mr Han­son says that if peo­ple want an exam­ple of the real­i­ty of work con­di­tions under free trade, they should look at over­seas work­ers in the New Zealand fish­ing indus­try.

“They are under­paid, over-worked, and as numer­ous reports have indi­cat­ed suf­fer from poor safe­ty con­di­tions and are often abused and even assault­ed. What hap­pens when that sit­u­a­tion moves ashore?”

He says the Mar­itime Union is plan­ning for strong and co-ordi­nat­ed nation­al action if there is any attempt to under­mine con­di­tions through free trade agree­ments, and has offered its sup­port to Aus­tralian unions.

ENDS