The
Maritime Union Of New Zealand  (MUNZ) is involved in a bitter dispute with
Ports of Auckland (POAL) management. At the centre of the dispute is
an attempt by the POAL management to bust the union and casualise the
workforce, as part of a drive towards privatisation. If the POAL
management succeed in busting the union it will have serious
implications for all workers in New Zealand. 

Casualisation
of work will be forced through in port after port and industry after
industry. This is a serious attack on organised labour as workers
rights will be ripped up due to casualisation of the workforce.
Workers will have no rights to such things as a guaranteed working
week, sick and holiday entitlements as the employers have an agenda
of a ‘race to the bottom’ as far as pay and conditions go in order to
make more profit.

Dispute
latest

MUNZ members on the picket lines: Photo MUNZ 

After
several one and two day strikes over the Christmas holiday period ,
MUNZ is now involved in a seven day partial strike that sees
unionised labour (300 workers) refusing to work containers offloaded by
outsourced POAL company Conlinxx.

If
PAOL management refuse to come back to the negotiating table to
discuss and agree an amicable collective agreement the union has
given notice of two concurrent seven day strikes to start
immediately after the present weeks action has finished.

The
above strike notices are in response to POAL management stating that
they will sack all port workers and that they will then be taken on
as contractors on a casualised basis. It isn’t surprising that the
bosses are trying to make an example of MUNZ as it is a strong
fighting militant union. The bosses are hoping by defeating and
making an example of MUNZ that this will seriously undermine any
fightback from the rest of the union movement against casualisation. The
bosses will be in for a shock on this point with workers’ anger
building up in all workplaces against continuing austerity and cuts !

Already
the CTU has fully supported the dispute, along with the full support
of the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Unlike the 1951
Watersiders lockout this dispute has the necessary solidarity to be
built upon to win.

To
date the POAL mis-information put out in the media by management is
one of over paid unionists earning over $100,000. This couldn’t be
further from the truth. The wages of wharfies is around $56,000 a
year. As the President of MUNZ, Garry Parsloe, stated to earn the
amount of money the management were talking about, workers would need
to take mattresses to work with them as they’d never be at home! The
fact that the CEO of POAL earns $750,000 is never mentioned!

Another
piece of POAL mis-information was that the Maersk shipping line has
pulled out of POAL to Tauranga. This is incorrect as one only as to
look at the weekly Shipping Gazette to note that Maersk still dock and
offload at POAL. It appears that the CEO Tony Gibson , a former
manager for Maersk, doesn’t want to let the facts get in the way of
busting the union!

Auckland
Council

POAL
is owned by Auckland Council on behalf of Aucklanders. When the
“super city” came in to existence, the then Minister of Local
Govt , ACTs Rodney Hide, appointed all the board members for the
council owned POAL. This was stacked up with individuals whose aim
is to undermine the POAL. Fundamentally the dispute isn’t about
productivity or return on investment to Auckland ratepayers as POAL
is an highly productive port and returns 9% gross or 6% net profit to
the council and is competitive by international standards. To
achieve such productivity POAL has a highly skilled workforce,
something the POAL conveniently forget in their mis-information!

For
the government appointed directors it appears that the dispute is
about wresting control of POAL from local government so that it can
be privatised and the waterfront can be opened up to carpet bagging
property speculators. The problem for the directors and management
is that the Maritime Union is standing in the way of this. Hence the
dispute.

Additionally,
privatisation of New Zealand’s ports is part of the government’s
agenda too as the recently announced discussion document that the
government is keenly interested in shows.

Solidarity

Solidarity
is building across Auckland and the rest of the country for MUNZ.
MUNZ has made the correct move to engage all the families of the
striking wharfies into the decision making around the dispute. As
one wife of a striking worker put it “If you think I am letting my
husband wait every day for a phone call to see if he has work and for
how long – 3 hours or what ever they offer. Then they have another
thing coming”. This comment sums up the mood and is an important
development that women are being actively involved in the dispute.

MUNZ family.  Photo: Simon Oosterman 

 The
CTU under the auspices of the Save Our Ports campaign have organised
petitions and meetings across Auckland and this has been backed by
the Labour Party. This is a welcome development. After the initial
onslaught in the right-wing media about the dispute projecting an
anti-union mood, MUNZ and the CTU are beginning to win the war of
words on the dispute. This can be seen by two factors. One is that
striking families are being portrayed more sympathetically in the
media, and secondly the POAL lawyers are pursuing legal action to
stop MUNZ from producing material in defence of their struggle. This
is what MUNZ President Garry Parsloe means when he says POAL are
engaging in the most reprehensive and repugnant campaign against
workers.

MUNZ
President, Garry Parsloe summed up the above when he said “.. it
appears that in New Zealand it is a crime to have a decent job, and the employers and the ruling class hate to see this… the ruling
class have their laws, courts and their hired media, all we can rely
on is our class solidarity.

Socialist
Appeal could not agree more with Garry Parsloe. It is working class
solidarity that will defeat these brutal attacks on Auckland
Wharfies.

Socialist
Appeal says:

• Support
  the Martime Union’s struggle against casualisation and privatisation;

  
  

• No
  to casualisation of labour

  
  

• No
  to privatisation

  
  

• Get
  involved in Save our Port’s
  campaign

  
  

• Nationalisation
  of New Zealand’s ports under workers control and management.

  
  

• An
  injury to one is an injury to all

 For more information go to www.saveourport.com

Extract from Save Our Port’s Website

Setting
the record straight: the facts

Dear
Aucklanders

We
are the workers of the Ports of Auckland. We are not troublemakers
trying to hold the city to ransom as we have been painted by Ports of
Auckland management. We are mums, dads, sons and daughters, just like
you. We want to set the record straight so you, the people who own
this port, can make an informed decision on whether or not you choose
to support us.

Our
current employment agreement provides the flexibility the port needs
without compromising safety or job security.

The
port of Auckland is a 24/7 operation that needs a wide range of
skills as well as employment flexibility. Our current employment
agreement provides this without compromising safety or job security.
It enables the Port to employ:
• 53% permanent full time workers
entitled to 40 hours of work, day or night,
• 27% permanent
workers only guaranteed 24 hrs work per week,
• 20% casual
workers guaranteed no work at all, giving the Port huge flexibility.

The
agreement is designed to provide a mix of stable, reliable work —
yet still meets the needs of a port where shipping can be
unpredictable. It expired on September 30, 2011.

Management
is demanding we sign contracts that take away any guaranteed weekly
hours; or be made redundant and our jobs outsourced.

We
won’t know whether we’ll be sent home after three hours or told
to work a 12-hour shift; or have any work at all. No worker in their
right mind would agree to his. That’s not negotiation. It’s
bullying in the name of the people of Auckland.

Management
has quoted ridiculous figures about what we earn.

The
dispute isn’t about pay, it’s about protecting our job security
and our remaining family time. The truth is that casual workers are
paid $14.25 an hour and permanent workers get $27.26 an hour.

There
are no penal rates, service pay or overtime rate. We work changing
shifts, night and day, every day of the week. Permanent workers only
get one guaranteed weekend off in every three weeks (also the only
time we are guaranteed two consecutive days off) and have to work
every other weekend. The work is hard, skilled and dangerous. Its not
family friendly, but at least we have some guaranteed hours of work.

Management
has offered us a 10% pay rise over 30 months to accept casualisation.
We only asked for 2.5% over 12 months and job security. That’s not
much when the cost of living increased by 4.6% in the year to when
our agreement expired.

Media
spin makes it look like the port is losing money.

It’s
not. Ports of Auckland is a successful, productive and profitable
modern port. It returns Auckland ratepayers 6% after tax and 9%
before tax. Hard work has made your port profitable in a tough global
economic environment.

Port
management are misleading the public

If
the port isn’t productive, why did we break one of the company’s
productivity records?

Last
September Ports of Auckland congratulated us for achieving record
hourly container moves and put on a BBQ. Now a few months later it
wants to sack us all. The company walked away from negotiations
despite our agreement to help improve productivity further and cut
our hours or work longer to meet irregular ship arrivals. Something
doesn’t add up.

Why
is the port’s management continually refusing to bargain in good
faith? Why does it seem to be forcing an industrial dispute? History
tells us this is typically a sign of a planned privatisation.

A
Government Commission has just published
a report that calls for our ports to be privatised.

This
is not a coincidence. Are we yet another planned asset sale?
Management doesn’t seem to want us to reach an agreement. By
‘failing to agree’ and then sacking us, the Ports get to use
contractors on the Port – privatising the service provision to
ships.

Ports
of Auckland belongs to the people of Auckland and should remain a
public asset that benefits all of us.

As
a representative of our community, it should be an employer that
treats its workers with fairness and respect.

The
port wants to create a competitive environment so contractors are
forced to undercut each other and drive down our wages.

Workers’
and contractors’ pay and conditions are the first things to be cut
to save costs. Contracted workers have few of the health and safety
protections of directly employed workers. We’ve got a really good
safety record that we want to protect.

Ports
of Auckland management are spending your money on their political
agenda and PR campaign.

We
just want to be treated fairly. Ultimately the agenda here is to
remove our collective voice at work – our union – which is the
major legal obstacle to privatisation. Together in our union, we
helped Aucklanders stop the port being privatised the last time and
with your help and support we can do it again.