Workers vote no confidence in Ports of Auckland Management and Board

A stop­work meet­ing of Ports of Auck­land work­ers today renewed calls for a change of lead­er­ship at their work­place.

Mari­time Uni­on mem­bers gathered from 7am this morn­ing at Orakei Bowl­ing Club to dis­cuss the find­ings of the recent health and safety report into Ports of Auck­land.

Mari­time Uni­on Nation­al Sec­ret­ary Craig Har­ris­on says the focus of the meet­ing was the death of two work­ers at the Ports since 2018 and how to fix health and safety.

Work­ers at the meet­ing voted unan­im­ously they no longer had trust and con­fid­ence in the exec­ut­ive man­age­ment and Board of the Ports of Auck­land.

The Uni­on was also demand­ing that it had uni­on offi­cials rep­res­en­ted on the Health and Safety, and fatigue risk man­age­ment Com­mit­tees, and a Uni­on rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Board.

Work­ers had been ignored and their con­cerns side­lined, and there had been ter­rible con­sequences, says Mr Har­ris­on.

Mr Har­ris­on says POAL Board Chair Bill Osborne was invited to attend via the Ports of Auck­land, but there was no reply to the Union’s invit­a­tion.

The Mari­time Uni­on has been pro­act­ive in con­tact­ing man­age­ment and Board to engage on health and safety, he says.

Mr Har­ris­on says man­age­ment, the Board and the Coun­cil are on notice that this issue was not going away.