Trans-Tasman Maritime Union Federation Ratified: A New Era of Unity for Maritime Workers

The Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia (MUA) and the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) have for­mal­ly rat­i­fied a Trans-Tas­man Fed­er­a­tion that unites mar­itime work­ers across Aus­tralia and New Zealand in a sin­gle, coor­di­nat­ed indus­tri­al and polit­i­cal force.

The rat­i­fi­ca­tion by the MUNZ Nation­al Coun­cil fol­lows res­o­lu­tions passed at the MUA Qua­dren­ni­al Nation­al Con­fer­ence. It marks a qual­i­ta­tive­ly new and high­er lev­el of inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion, build­ing on gen­er­a­tions of shared strug­gle and on the most recent Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment endorsed at the high­est lev­els of both unions.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay said the chal­lenges faced by a dock­er in Tau­ran­ga close­ly resem­ble those faced in Port Botany.

“This fed­er­a­tion cre­ates the frame­work for coor­di­nat­ed cam­paign­ing, shared resources and joint action.”

MUA Nation­al Sec­re­tary Pad­dy Crum­lin says the Fed­er­a­tion aligns both unions organ­i­sa­tion­al­ly with inter­na­tion­al mod­els such as the ILWU, ILA and the Sea­far­ers Inter­na­tion­al Union.

“This will put us in the strongest pos­si­ble posi­tion to tack­le multi­na­tion­als head on in both coun­tries,” Crum­lin added.

MUA Deputy Nation­al Sec­re­tary, War­ren Smith, who has led the agree­ment-mak­ing process for the Aus­tralian con­tin­gent, said the new uni­ty sends a clear sig­nal to employ­ers.

“Any strug­gle or attack on either union will be met with the full, unit­ed force of mar­itime work­ers across both coun­tries. Mar­itime work­ers will stand togeth­er when­ev­er jobs, con­di­tions or rights are threat­ened,” Smith says.

The agree­ment pro­vides for joint par­tic­i­pa­tion in each union’s struc­tures, includ­ing nation­al coun­cils and con­fer­ences, and estab­lish­es an inter­na­tion­al exec­u­tive.

The arrange­ment pre­serves the exist­ing rules of each union while adding shared capac­i­ty, deep­er coop­er­a­tion and coor­di­nat­ed indus­try engage­ment.

Fed­er­a­tion Pri­or­i­ties and Com­mit­ments

The Fed­er­a­tion will deliv­er coor­di­nat­ed cam­paigns, bar­gain­ing sup­port and mutu­al sol­i­dar­i­ty across ports and mar­itime work­places. Shared resources will bol­ster the abil­i­ty of both unions to con­front cross-bor­der threats like automa­tion, out­sourc­ing and attempts to under­mine crew­ing stan­dards.

Mem­bers engaged in indus­tri­al dis­putes will have access to rapid legal, finan­cial and organ­is­ing sup­port, regard­less of which side of the Tas­man they work on.

A major pri­or­i­ty is a vig­or­ous cam­paign for cab­o­tage and for trans-Tas­man seago­ing trade routes to be crewed by Aus­tralian and New Zealand sea­far­ers.

The Fed­er­a­tion will also advance joint work on First Nations strug­gles, trade union edu­ca­tion, renew­able indus­tries and increased diver­si­ty across the mar­itime sec­tor so that the work­force reflects the gen­der and cul­tur­al make­up of the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty.

DP World and Hol­cim Under Scruti­ny

The for­ma­tion of the Fed­er­a­tion comes as work­ers in both coun­tries face esca­lat­ing chal­lenges from multi­na­tion­al oper­a­tors.

In Aus­tralia, DP World con­tin­ues to push an automa­tion agen­da that has been shown to be less safe, reduce pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and restrict through­put.

In New Zealand, DP World has attempt­ed to expand its foot­print through pri­va­tised entry into steve­dor­ing mar­kets.

At the same time, Hol­cim – oper­at­ing with DP World’s sub­sidiary NovaAl­go­ma Cement Car­ri­ers (NACC) – is attempt­ing to replace local sea­far­ers with for­eign-flagged crews, under­min­ing jobs, safe­ty stan­dards and long-held crew­ing arrange­ments.

These coor­di­nat­ed attacks on mar­itime work­ers under­score the impor­tance of the Fed­er­a­tion. By unit­ing their organ­i­sa­tion­al strength, the MUA and MUNZ will ensure that multi­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions can­not play one nation­al work­force off against the oth­er.

The Fed­er­a­tion will sup­port resis­tance to any attempt to out­source jobs, impose unsafe automa­tion, or erode the rights and con­di­tions of mar­itime work­ers.

A Unit­ed Defence of Mar­itime Com­mu­ni­ties

“Recent clash­es with steve­dores and ship­ping com­pa­nies have demon­strat­ed that mar­itime work­ers must increas­ing­ly defend pay, job secu­ri­ty and safe work­ing con­di­tions. The Trans-Tas­man Fed­er­a­tion con­sol­i­dates the indus­tri­al pow­er and social sol­i­dar­i­ty of mar­itime com­mu­ni­ties on both sides of the Tas­man so that these fights can be tak­en on in a coor­di­nat­ed and effec­tive man­ner,” says War­ren Smith.

“This fed­er­a­tion is a defence of mar­itime com­mu­ni­ties,” he says. “Attempts to cut labour costs, impose automa­tion with­out agree­ment or replace local crews will be met with coor­di­nat­ed resis­tance across both coun­tries.”

Mr Find­lay says the unions will always seek con­struc­tive engage­ment with employ­ers, but uni­ty will remain their great­est strength.

“Where employ­ers are unrea­son­able or unprin­ci­pled, we will stand up and fight, togeth­er, for the best pos­si­ble out­comes for mar­itime work­ers.”