Work stoppages considered over police spy scandal

The Mar­itime Union may call a nation­al work stop­page to hold stop­work meet­ings of its mem­bers to dis­cuss the police spy scan­dal.

The Mar­itime Union was one of a num­ber of Unions report­ed­ly named in emails about union actions sent by police informer Rob Gilchrist to his han­dler in the Spe­cial Inves­ti­ga­tion Group.

Mar­itime Union Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says the Mar­itime Union is sup­port­ing calls for a high lev­el Com­mis­sion of Inquiry into the Police’s Spe­cial Inves­ti­ga­tion Group.

He says the Union is demand­ing an apol­o­gy and would seek dam­ages from the New Zealand police, and is call­ing its branch­es to pre­pare for indus­tri­al action unless a full apol­o­gy and expla­na­tion is made.

“We are a demo­c­ra­t­ic union with open doors and we are absolute­ly astound­ed to find out through the media that infor­ma­tion about our union has been gath­ered through a Gov­ern­ment spy.”

Mr Han­son says he con­sid­ers the pub­li­ca­tion of the Mar­itime Union’s name in this way has dam­aged the name of the Union and legal advice would be sought.

He says work­ers will not per­mit their Unions to be treat­ed as crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions by the State.

Mr Han­son says if an informer was paid in cash to sup­ply infor­ma­tion to police about legit­i­mate union busi­ness it would bring into ques­tion the cred­i­bil­i­ty and motives of the New Zealand police.

“If the police are seri­ous about track­ing groups who threat­en the well­be­ing of ordi­nary New Zealan­ders, would they pay inform­ers to spy on employ­er groups want­i­ng to attack wages and con­di­tions?”

“Who exact­ly decides who goes on the spy list, who autho­rizes these deci­sions, and what account­abil­i­ty and pro­ce­dures do such spe­cial inves­ti­ga­tions have to ensure they are not cor­rupt or polit­i­cal­ly biased?”