Featured Stories
 

Welcome to the Maritime Union

The Maritime Union of New Zealand was formed in 2002 when the New Zealand Waterfront Workers' Union and the New Zealand Seafarers' Union joined together. We represent waterfront workers, seafarers and related workers in New Zealand. The union offers a range of services to members, including negotiating employment agreements, providing work related legal advice, promoting health and safety on the job, and promoting the interests of working people - our members.

Maritime workers gear up to resist Ports of Auckland outsourcing

A meeting of around 150 Auckland maritime workers held today had a simple message for Ports of Auckland management about plans to outsource labour to outside contractors: "not this century."

Roger Douglas youth rates bill an attack on workers

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has poured scorn on a bill introduced to Parliament by ACT MP Roger Douglas to reintroduce youth rates. The Minimum Wage (Mitigation of Youth Unemployment) Amendment Bill was drawn from the Members’ bills ballot yesterday, and the Union is urging the Government to distance itself from it.

Maritime Union opposes outsourcing at Ports of Auckland

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says outsourcing at Ports of Auckland cannot replace a skilled in-house workforce.

Maritime Union opposes any GST increase

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says a proposed rise of GST to 15% suggested this afternoon by the Prime Minister would be bad for the majority of New Zealanders.

Government can put New Zealanders in containers, but it can’t give them jobs shipping them

27 August 2009

The Maritime Union has a message for the Government: instead of jailing New Zealanders in containers, it would be better to have them working on the containers by rebuilding coastal shipping. Corrections Minister Judith Collins announced today a "container unit" will be set up at Rimutaka Prison to house surging numbers of prisoners, the latest embarrassing step in New Zealand's failure to confront the real issues behind crime. Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says New Zealand workers have been forced out of maritime employment in their own country by allowing overseas labour to be exploited on the New Zealand coastal waters. He says that due to the "open coast" policy introduced by National in the 1990s New Zealand had seen its shipping industry taken apart, while many other countries reserved their domestic merchant shipping and fisheries for local industry.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Fonterra milking New Zealand taxpayers

26 August 2009

The Maritime Union has hit back at "socially irresponsible" Fonterra pulling out of regional ports and says the dairy giant's profits are being subsidized by the taxpayer. Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says Fonterra has come out with "weak excuses" for its decision to pull out of some regional ports in favour of transporting products by long distance rail. Mr Hanson says the future of the New Zealand transport industry seems to be in the hands of one man, Fonterra General Manager of Supply Chain Strategy Nigel Jones. "Fonterra holds the fate of whole regional economies in their hands because of their size and influence, but seem to have no accountability to anyone but themselves."

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Maritime Union joins rallies and digs deep in Telecom lines engineers dispute

24 August 2009

The Maritime Union has upped its industrial and financial support of Telecom lines engineers in their employment dispute. Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says a national meeting of Union representatives from ports and ships this morning voted an initial $10,000 to support Telecom lines engineers in their struggle for secure jobs. Maritime Union members from New Zealand ships and the waterfront joined rallies in Auckland and Wellington this morning alongside the lines engineers and other supporters.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Maritime Union calling for international support for Telecom engineers

21 August 2009

The Maritime Union has added its weight to the struggle of Telecom lines engineers fighting to protect their jobs. Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says maritime workers will be supporting the Telecom lines engineers, who are members of the EPMU, in their battle against contracting out. He says a special national executive meeting of the Maritime Union has been called for Monday, which will be followed by communications with the International Transport Workers Federation based in London and its New Zealand union affiliates, as well as Australian maritime unions.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Maritime Union highlights negative effects of Fonterra port pull out

21 August 2009

The Maritime Union says regional ports have been hit hard because of a decision by Fonterra to rail goods to distant ports. Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the moves have already led to notices of major redundancies in the port of Timaru, greater casualization of the workforce, and was threatening the viability of some ports. "This issue cannot be dealt with by ports continuing to compete each other into the ground. It must be addressed by national co-ordination of our transport system, not the wasteful, insecure and chaotic mess we have at the moment."

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Ports of Auckland under threat from secret SuperCity agenda

19 August 2009

The Maritime Union says it is concerned about the intentions of the Government towards Auckland's public assets under the proposed SuperCity. The union represents several hundred workers at the Ports of Auckland, which provides a major income to the people of Auckland who own the port through the Auckland Regional Council. Maritime Union Local 13 Secretary Russell Mayn says there has been an ongoing "softening up" campaign from big business interests to sell off the Ports of Auckland so they can get their hands on them. He says there is serious cause for concern that the SuperCity plan for Auckland's local government will be used to push forward privatization of assets - including the port.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Fonterra and shipping companies held up to scrutiny

19 August 2009

The Maritime Union's comments on the effect on ports of decisions by Fonterra and shipping companies have featured widely in the news. TVNZ reports that "the Maritime Union of New Zealand is calling for national co-ordination of port strategy, arguing that Fonterra is exerting such power as a customer it is effectively rationalising the port industry." The Taranaki Daily News writes that "Zealand's waterfront workers and seafarers have savaged Fonterra's decision to drop Port Taranaki, warning it has the potential to 'rip the guts out' of the port" following a "a bombshell decision last week, the dairy giant said it would be railing Whareroa product to Auckland and Tauranga instead."

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, In the news0 Comments

Regional ports at mercy of Fonterra and shipping companies

19 August 2009

The Maritime Union says Fonterra's decision to stop shipping containerized exports through Port Taranaki and Port Timaru was an example of how entire regional economies within New Zealand were being disrupted. The recent announcement by Fonterra means the loss of 25,000 boxes of cargo to Port Taranaki in New Plymouth, and the loss of 24,000 boxes to Port Timaru annually. Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the "overnight decisions" by Fonterra and major shipping companies are harming regional communities and regional ports through a process of "destructive competition" where ports experienced major and unpredictable changes in shipments.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

Unions oppose increasing GST

17 August 2009

The Council of Trade Union says a proposal to increase in GST would hit low income earners hard.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, In the news0 Comments

Port Otago workers reject company restructuring proposal

12 August 2009

A combined union meeting at Port Otago today voted to reject new restructuring proposals from Port Otago management. Around 200 union members attended a stopwork meeting at 1pm which halted work around the port and packed the Union hall in one of the largest meetings of recent years.

Read the full story

Posted in Blog, Media releases0 Comments

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »

Twitter Updates

Photos on flickr

Campaign for a living wage

The Maritimes magazine

Superannuation

Redundancy Protection Bill