Port of Napier workers fight contracting out

The Port of Napier faces industrial disruption and international union solidarity actions as local workers prepare to defend their livelihoods.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says a management decision contract out container stevedoring to an anti-union employer is putting secure local jobs in jeopardy and threatening the future of the port.

Around 25 permanent jobs and around 60 casual jobs at Hawke’s Bay Stevedoring Services stand to be affected if the contracting out goes ahead.

MUNZ general secretary Trevor Hanson says a special national meeting of the union with representatives from all New Zealand ports and a delegation from the Maritime Union of Australia was held in Wellington this week to plan a major fightback.

“We have made every effort to talk to the Port Company, but they seem determined to hit the self-destruct button and have left us with no option but to take this dispute to the next level.”

Hanson says the situation has already had an enormous impact on local workers, and will lead to inevitable attacks on wages, conditions and health and safety in the future.

“We have a situation here where secure local jobs that benefit the local community are being dumped through what is effectively a contracting out process. The Maritime Union will do whatever it takes to ensure that secure local jobs are protected.

“Management need to sit down with the union to find a solution that is mutually acceptable, before they cause major harm to the local workforce, their business and the entire economy of Hawke’s Bay.”

MUNZ has enlisted the support of the Council of Trade Unions and the International Transport Workers’ Federation for this dispute.

You can send a letter of protest to Port of Napier management via LabourStart:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=314