Maritime Union of New Zealand

New Zealand maritime workers will be going up the gangway this week to check out ships flying “flags of convenience” and ensure that crew conditions, wages, and health and safety standards are up to scratch.

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The New Zealand affiliates of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) met today to discuss their concerns with the arrival of KiwiRail’s new locomotives in the country.

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The Maritime Union of New Zealand says an agreement it has reached with Port Otago Limited is a “win win” situation that will prevent job losses.

Maritime Union National President Phil Adams says a meeting of 150 cargo handlers held yesterday at Port Chalmers voted in favour of a proposal hammered out by the Unions and the Company.

Members of the Maritime Union of New Zealand and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union attended the meeting.

Mr Adams says the proposal will see no compulsory redundancies amongst the workforce.

“We believe the workforce will respond to the Company’s efforts by continuing to ensure a high level of productivity.”

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Four Seafarers Scholarships are available for MUNZ seafarer members, and children or grandchildren of New Zealand seafarers, for study in 2010 at University or technical institutes.

Details and application information for the scholarships is available here.

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The Maritime Union of New Zealand has elected two new national officials in their three-yearly union elections.

The new General Secretary of the Union is Joe Fleetwood of Wellington.

A new Assistant General Secretary of the Union has also been elected, Ray Fife, of Bluff.

The National President of the Maritime Union, Phil Adams of Port Chalmers, was re-elected unopposed.

The National Vice President of the Maritime Union, Garry Parsloe of Auckland, was also re-elected unopposed.

The elections took place in a postal ballot of all financial members of the Union which closed last Friday.

The new General Secretary of the Union, Joe Fleetwood, thanked members for their support and thanked all members who took part in the democratic process of the elections.

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The Ports of Auckland has been put on notice from Unions that it will have to train its own workforce rather than fly in staff from other ports.

The port company wants to transfer skilled labour from Wellington and Lyttelton to keep up with work after 12 weeks ago laying off a substantial number of workers.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Vice President Garry Parsloe says the situation is a result of the port company ignoring Union advice.

“They were told there were too many redundancies, and it would create a shortage of skilled workers. Now this has happened.”

He says that the Maritime Union would only agree for Unionised workers being transferred into Auckland if there was a written commitment from the Ports of Auckland to train a sufficient number of its own workforce.

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