Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union has hit out at free trade deals after revelations that China was imposing sanctions at will on New Zealand dairy products.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says that “free trade” has been promoted by Government and big business as the grand solution to all New Zealand’s problems.

But he says that if the details of free trade deals and their negotiations were known to the people of New Zealand and elsewhere, then they would be thrown out overnight.

Mr Fleetwood says there is a dark side to free trade deals which needed to be put under the spotlight.

“In so many issues today, we see free trade agreements harming or threatening the interests of working people. It is about more than commerce, it is about controlling our destiny. Under free trade deals, New Zealand people are no longer in charge of our own country.”

He says the loss of jobs at Hillside rail workshop, attacks on New Zealand’s ability to provide medicine through Pharmac, and the debate over file sharing laws, were all different aspects of how free trade deals were threatening New Zealand’s future.

“What we are seeing here is powerful nations and massive corporates setting the rules, and we are playing their game to their benefit.”

He says free trade agreements were a part of the deregulation and free market policies that were behind the global recession and economic instability.

“New Zealand needs to keep its ability to make decisions for our own benefit, and manage our trade to ensure a balanced economy that is not just dependent on one or two commodities.”

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.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is holding its New Zealand Flag of Convenience Week of Action this week, ending Friday 3 June 2011.

Members of the ITF-affiliated Maritime Union of New Zealand will board vessels in New Zealand’s main ports, and go over documentation such as wage books, talk to crews, and inspect the seaworthiness and safety of ships.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says this is part of an ongoing international campaign to improve standards in the shipping industry.

He says that there have been a number of serious incidents on overseas vessels, including FOC vessels, in New Zealand ports and in and around New Zealand waters in recent years.

“We have had ongoing incidents ranging from underpayment of wages, failure for crews to be returned home at the end of their contracts, mistreatment and abuse, all the way up to serious injuries and deaths, and the sinking of vessels.”

Flag of Convenience (FOC) vessels are registered in countries with very lax or non-existent regulation of the maritime industry.

FOCs provide a means of avoiding labour regulation in the country of ownership, and become a vehicle for paying low wages and forcing long hours of work and unsafe working conditions.

ITF New Zealand inspector Grahame MacLaren says the week of action is intended to convey a clear message to Flag of Convenience operators who trade in New Zealand waters that they need to abide to basic ITF standards.

“The main focus will be to target FOC vessels without ITF agreements for the crew, but any other foreign flagged vessels will come under scrutiny.”

The ITF is made up of 681 unions representing 4,500,000 transport workers in 148 countries. It is one of several Global Union Federations allied with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

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.

The Chinese made locomotives will arrive on two different ships into the Ports of Auckland over the next 24 hours and be unloaded this week.

New Zealand ITF Convenor and President of the Maritime Union Garry Parsloe says New Zealand workers are concerned and angry that local jobs and industry have been undermined by sending the work overseas.

“We keep on hearing how the country is broke, and we all know how high unemployment is, but KiwiRail and the National Government are allowing work that should be done here in New Zealand to go overseas, destroying jobs and taking money out of our communities.”

Mr Parsloe says the unions condemned the outsourcing of work overseas when KiwiRail had the ability to manufacture in its own workshops.

New Zealand rail workers are represented by the ITF affiliated Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).

RMTU General Secretary Wayne Butson says that 35 of the new flat top multi functional wagons for KiwiRail have already been made at the Hillside workshops in Dunedin, but most had been contracted to China.

“We have demonstrated our ability and competency to build rolling stock here. The only factor at play here is that cheap exploited labour is used in China. Yet the money that could be spent in New Zealand communities, boosting jobs, skills and the future of industry, is being funneled out of the country.”

“In the context of the recent budget, it is clear that this Government is taking a tunnel vision approach to lowering New Zealand’s national debt burden. They are happy to see our current account deficit balloon out by the cost of these rail projects, at the same time as giving our skilled railway tradespersons a belief that there is no future for them in New Zealand and they need to join the exodus to Australia where they will be quickly snatched up.”

The ITF unions will be meeting again this week to discuss the way forward. ITF affiliates in New Zealand include the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, Maritime Union of New Zealand, Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, National Distribution Union, Merchant Service Guild, and Aviation and Marine Engineers Association, representing tens of thousands of New Zealand transport workers.

The ITF is made up of 681 unions representing 4,500,000 transport workers in 148 countries. It is one of several Global Union Federations allied with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The Maritime Union says the publication of a report on the exploitation of overseas fishing crews in New Zealand waters by the Sunday Star Times today has “lifted the lid” on what is going on in the industry.
Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the union has been advocating for a complete clean up of the joint venture fishing industry for years to protect workers.
“It is good to see the New Zealand media finally shining the spotlight into some dark places.”
In recent years the joint venture fishing industry had seen a string of sinkings, drownings, industrial accidents, reports of violence and abuse, health and safety violations, ship jumpings, appalling work conditions and failures to honour employment and wage agreements.
Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union wants a full audit of the industry, including the standard of vessels and opening the wages books.
The use of employment agents in the countries of origin for foreign crews meant the worst practices of Third World economies had become established in the New Zealand economy.
“This situation is what is known overseas as social dumping, or the exploitation of cross-border labour in a globalized economy.”
Mr Fleetwood says just because fishing vessels were operating off the New Zealand coast, that did not give operators a right to ignore New Zealand standards of employment.
“The New Zealand Government has taken an ineffective approach, simply because there are big profits in it for the companies.”
He says the overseas fishing crews are not members of the Maritime Union but the union would continue to offer help if asked as the overseas crews had no other effective representation.
Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has assisted crew members on many occasions, organizing repatriation of crew members and the payment of outstanding wages.
The Maritime Union of New Zealand is affiliated to the ITF, which is organizing internationally to improve conditions for seafarers and fishing crews.
Mr Fleetwood says the long term answer is to employ New Zealand workers on good wages and conditions in the fishing industry, rather than allowing the worst practices to continue.
“New Zealand workers have a right to jobs in their own fishing industry, especially at a time of high unemployment.”

New Zealand union representatives will rally on Thursday 17 February 2011 outside the Mexican Embassy in Wellington at 12.30pm in support of Mexican workers’ rights as part of an international week of solidarity actions.

The participating unions will be the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), Service and Food Workers’ Union (SFWU), National Distribution Union (NDU), Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU), Financial Sector Union (Finsec) and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU).

Representatives will also seek to present a letter to the Charge D’Affaires at the Embassy urging the Mexican government to recognise workers’ rights and comply with UN ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association.

The Mexican Embassy is located at 187 Featherston Street.

The Maritime Union says the planned privatization of key public assets must be stopped.

The Prime Minister announced today the National Government were planning partial sales of key state assets.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the loss of further public assets would be a disaster for working people.

He says the Maritime Union would campaign to protect the assets that generations of New Zealand workers collectively contributed towards and built up.

“There is no way we can allow the National Government to flog off any more public assets to their rich mates.”

Mr Fleetwood says public assets such as energy and electricity generators and Solid Energy should remain in public ownership.

He says that previous claims the privatization of assets would benefit “mum and dad investors” were nonsense.

“All New Zealand mums and dads are already shareholders in these public assets. The only beneficiaries of privatization will be overseas investors and a minority of the very wealthy.”

“Privatization is not a one off, it is a process, and National are trying to get the process underway that will end in the sell off of the last remaining assets we own.”

He says that guarantees that majority ownership would remain in New Zealand hands were not worth the paper they were written on.

Mr Fleetwood says that asset sales together with free trade deals would soon reduce New Zealanders to tenants in their own country.

He says the Maritime Union would be mobilizing in election year to ensure all New Zealanders were aware of the threat of privatization.