Wharfies welcome Port undertakings to not contract out

Mem­bers of the Mar­itime Union were thrilled today that fol­low­ing a Set­tle­ment Con­fer­ence with the Employ­ment Court, Ports of Auck­land has seen sense and under­tak­en to halt its con­tract­ing process­es and re-enter col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing.

Mar­itime Union Nation­al Pres­i­dent Gar­ry Parsloe says this now means these work­ers can safe­ly return to work on the terms and con­di­tions of their col­lec­tive agree­ment and do what they have always want­ed – con­cen­trate on col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing for a renewed agree­ment.

The fact the Port has tak­en this path today is a clear indi­ca­tion they are ner­vous about poten­tial court action and realise that the path they have put all their efforts into, includ­ing the absolute­ly unprin­ci­pled deci­sion to dis­miss the work­force and employ con­tract labour is not viable, he said.

CTU Pres­i­dent Helen Kel­ly said: “Today is great relief for these work­ers but the fact they have even had to go through this means the Coun­cil must now ask seri­ous ques­tions about who is run­ning this Port and why the Board embarked on a path that has cost the rate pay­ers mil­lions and done con­sid­er­able dam­age to the rep­u­ta­tion of the Port.

“The Coun­cil should hold an imme­di­ate inquiry into how this whole mess occurred,” Helen Kel­ly said.

Gar­ry Parsloe said the main focus of the union will now be to get a set­tle­ment for a new col­lec­tive agree­ment.

“Whether this Board and Port man­age­ment are capa­ble of work­ing con­struc­tive­ly to rebuild the bat­tered and dam­aged rela­tion­ship with port work­ers who they have besmirched at every oppor­tu­ni­ty and set­tle a fair col­lec­tive is an unan­swered ques­tion.”

“The Coun­cil as own­er must ensure that any Board or Port man­age­ment are able to get this Port back on track”.