Workers deserve better pay and conditions

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and says its mem­bers at the Ports of Auck­land earn every cent they are paid for long hours and skilled work in tough and dan­ger­ous con­di­tions.

Work­ers at the Ports of Auck­land are on the second day of strike action today, pick­et­ing ter­min­al gates for improved wages and con­di­tions.

Mari­time Uni­on Auck­land Water­front Branch Loc­al 13 Pres­id­ent Denis Carl­isle says bosses have resor­ted to “old fash­ioned pro­pa­ganda” that the work­force had it too good.

“Of course, the people say­ing this get paid much more than work­ers here or any­where. Let’s ask for an indi­vidu­al break­down of how much seni­or man­age­ment are being paid at the Ports of Auck­land for a com­par­is­on.”

He says the atti­tude seems to be that CEOs and cor­por­ate man­agers can com­mand vast inflated salar­ies that bear no rela­tion to their per­form­ance, but work­ers are not entitled to a decent wage.

“Every­one seems to be con­cerned that New Zea­l­and is a low wage eco­nomy, so we’re doing our bit to change that.”

Mr Carl­isle says work­ers are get­ting fed up with being “thrown crumbs” from employ­ers.

He says that transna­tion­al ship­ping cor­por­a­tions were extract­ing vast profits from New Zea­l­and, and no one ques­tioned that.

Mr Carl­isle says a per­man­ent steve­dore work­ing a 40 hour week earns $52 000 on aver­age in Auck­land.

“Any­thing above this is earned by over­time includ­ing double shifts (16 hours) worked around the clock, 364 days a year in all weath­er con­di­tions and under heavy time con­straints.”

Mr Carl­isle says to give an idea of the work­ing envir­on­ment was the situ­ation over Christ­mas Day.

“We’ve man­aged to get a day off for Christ­mas for mem­bers two years ago, but the port com­pany are try­ing to make it a work­ing day again. Fam­ily time means noth­ing to them. Our mem­bers will con­tin­ue to assert their rights as human beings and work­ers.”