Ukrainian crew’s onboard protest in Lyttelton backed by Maritime Union

The Mar­itime Union says that a group of Ukrain­ian fish­er­men in Lyt­tel­ton are vic­tims of the lack of reg­u­la­tion of the fish­ing indus­try.

The 27 crew mem­bers are cur­rent­ly onboard the FV Malakhov Kur­gan in the port of Lyt­tel­ton where they are refus­ing to leave until they are paid back­pay owing to them, and held a pick­et this morn­ing at the gates of the port.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the 27 crew mem­bers have not been paid the cor­rect wages for the time they have worked.

He says a fur­ther group of fish­er­men were sent home after accept­ing a lump­sum pay­ment, but the Mar­itime Union has con­cerns about the way the sit­u­a­tion has been han­dled, and the mes­sage this is giv­ing fish­ing com­pa­nies and char­ter­ers.

Mr Han­son says it appears that crew mem­bers have been threat­ened that they may be jailed when they return home unless they give up their claim.

He says the Mar­itime Union will sup­port the crew and is doing what it can to resolve the sit­u­a­tion in a pos­i­tive way for them.