Secure jobs safe after Port of Napier resolution

Mari­time work­ers are cel­eb­rat­ing tonight after a suc­cess­ful res­ol­u­tion of the Port of Napi­er dis­pute in medi­ation this after­noon.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says the week long dis­pute had been about secure loc­al jobs being pre­served at the port.

“We wanted ship­ping com­pan­ies to be able to use steve­dores where secure loc­al jobs could be achieved. Ship­ping com­pan­ies wanted a solu­tion, we sup­plied one, and the port is back in action as of now.”

Mr Han­son says offi­cials went down to the pick­et line this after­noon to break the good news shortly before 3pm.

“We’ve had our mem­bers out on the port gates for nearly a week, and today there was a great sense of relief that these work­ers will have work tomor­row and into the future.”

Mr Han­son says the pick­et will be taken off the gates imme­di­ately, and work­ers will be work­ing around the clock over the week­end to clear the back­log of work before Christ­mas.

“The port was effect­ively shut down dur­ing this dis­pute and now it will be back to busi­ness as usu­al.”

Mr Han­son says the dis­pute had been unne­ces­sary, and had caused dam­age to the repu­ta­tion of the port, but the Uni­on would seek to ensure a suc­cess­ful year in 2008 as long as secure jobs were avail­able to loc­al people.

He says the defin­ing moments of the dis­pute were the tenacity of the loc­al work­ers who manned 24 hour pick­ets on the port gates, the sup­port of oth­er uni­ons and the CTU, and the massive glob­al sup­port from the inter­na­tion­al work­ing class includ­ing the Mari­time Uni­on of Aus­tralia and the Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers Fed­er­a­tion.