Vale John O’Neill

Respect­ed retired sea­far­er John O’Neill passed away on 22 Jan­u­ary 2024 after a short ill­ness.

John is known as a great union­ist, rep­re­sent­ing the Seamen’s Union, Sea­far­ers Union, and Mar­itime Union as Dunedin Vice Pres­i­dent 1969, Lyt­tel­ton Sec­re­tary 1971, Auck­land Seago­ing Coun­cil­lor 1974, Reliev­ing Assis­tant Sec­re­tary 1975, Auck­land Seago­ing Coun­cil­lor 1978, Auck­land Assis­tant Sec­re­tary 1982–1984, Nation­al Coun­cil­lor & Nation­al Vice Pres­i­dent to 2002, Auck­land Pres­i­dent & Vice Pres­i­dent 2004 to 2012.

John also loved his time at sea where his lead­er­ship qual­i­ties were evi­dent lead­ing as ships Bosun, ships union del­e­gate, sea­man­ship skills, nego­ti­a­tion skills and men­tor­ing the youth of the indus­try.

Our deep­est con­do­lences to John’s wife Julie and whanau at their loss.

(Thanks to Local 13 Pres­i­dent Hec­tor Thor­pe for obit­u­ary and pic­ture)