Time to expose conditions of overseas crews on New Zealand coast

The Mar­itime Union says the week­end inci­dent when a group of Chi­nese fish­er­men jumped over­board in Welling­ton Har­bour should be set­ting alarm bells ring­ing.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the inci­dent is just one of a con­tin­u­ous series of ship jump­ing and prob­lems expe­ri­enced by crew onboard for­eign and joint ven­ture fish­ing boats.

“The Mar­itime Union has been con­tin­u­al­ly point­ing out that there is some­thing bad­ly wrong as over­seas crews are being sub­ject­ed to abuse and exploita­tion while they are in New Zealand waters, and even New Zealand ports.”

He says the act of the Chi­nese fish­er­men jump­ing over­board with their suit­cas­es while in the mid­dle of the har­bour was one of des­per­a­tion, and it seemed like­ly that one crew mem­ber may have drowned.

The sit­u­a­tion was made even more out­ra­geous because local crews were being laid off New Zealand fish­ing ves­sels, then replaced by over­seas crews employed on rock bot­tom wages and con­di­tions in a cli­mate of fear and secre­cy.

“It is sim­ply a case of fur­ther exploita­tion of work­ers, using one against anoth­er to com­pete for employ­ment in the inter­na­tion­al mar­ket.”

Mr Han­son says because it is hap­pen­ing on the New Zealand coast there is no excuse for it to be ignored by politi­cians and bureau­crats.

He says that the lat­est inci­dent in Welling­ton har­bour could prob­a­bly be seen from Lambton Quay, so the sit­u­a­tion could no longer be ignored and urgent atten­tion was required.

Mr Han­son says that over­seas crews are reg­u­lar­ly jump­ing ship through­out New Zealand, and says a recent inci­dent in Bluff where crew jumped ship from the ‘Melil­la 201’ had revealed a his­to­ry of death, injury and pol­lu­tion on that ship and its sis­ter ship the ‘Melil­la 203.’

He says a report has been put togeth­er by the Depart­ment of Labour about con­di­tions onboard joint ven­ture fish­ing ves­sels, but has not been made pub­lic.

“The Mar­itime Union is con­cerned that under free trade agree­ments, the prob­lems being expe­ri­enced now will be mag­ni­fied ten­fold, with short-term, casu­al labour being moved between coun­tries to push down wages and con­di­tions.”