Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union says the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) free trade deal is a threat to democracy in New Zealand.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the current TPPA negotiations are a “thieves charter” that sell out workers and the environment to control by global corporate bosses.

Recent discussions at the APEC leaders forum in Hawaii showed that democratic issues and workers rights were at the bottom of the pile in the TPPA.

“There is no open debate, no public discussion, it’s all done behind closed doors, and will be kept under wraps for the next four years – longer than a New Zealand term of Government.”

Tangling New Zealand up in free trade deals means that global big business will have the right to sue the New Zealand people if they don’t get their way, says Mr Fleetwood.

He says this situation had already occurred overseas including Australia and Mexico.

“Let’s get it straight, free trade does not mean free people.”

Free trade deals and plans to privatize New Zealand assets by the National Government were a major threat to the future of New Zealand, says Mr Fleetwood.

“We will become tenants in our own land.”

Mr Fleetwood says that most New Zealander’s have not been told about what is in these agreements, and most MP’s wouldn’t have the first clue about what is going on either.

“We have to understand that this is not a one off. We are on the slippery slope and if we don’t start demanding answers from our politicians they will sell us down the river.”

He says in the TPPA negotiations the United States was already on the attack to try and undermine our right to give priority to enterprises owned by the New Zealand people.

Mr Fleetwood says that the labour problems in the fishing and maritime industries give a taste of what will happen if New Zealand is sucked into free trade deals.

“Big corporates from China have already indicated that want to get control of the supply chain, their plan is to buy up the mines, the agriculture, the land, the transport system, they have already tried to buy a port as they already own our shipping.”

“We will see more short term, casual workers brought in from low wage economies who are already being exploited in New Zealand. It already happens in the fishing industry and it is already moving onto land.”

The Maritime Union is backing the New Zealand Not For Sale campaign and endorses its demands that the New Zealand Government:

• cease negotiations on the Transpacific Partnership agreement; and

• not sign this agreement; and

• cease work on any other in-progress or proposed international trade and investment treaties containing clauses which limit or abrogate New Zealand’s sovereign and democratic right to make and enforce laws and regulations and provide services which differ from those of other states or transnational organisations.

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has welcomed today’s announcement by the Government of the terms of reference and panel for an official and wide ranging inquiry into foreign owned vessels in the fishing industry.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the Government’s objectives sound good on paper, but the Union wants real answers.

“Enforceable rules and regulations for labour standards, and the need for New Zealand to benefit from our own resources, including jobs, are the big issues. This inquiry will need to shine a light into dark places.”

“This inquiry is long overdue and the Maritime Union have been calling for one for many years. But we know in advance that this inquiry will confirm what we already know, that disgraceful practices have become the norm and accepted by the industry.”

This has caused great harm, says Mr Fleetwood.

He says in 2006 new regulations were brought in to tighten up the rules around overseas crews on joint venture vessels, but the inquiry was effectively an admission that previous efforts had not cleaned up the industry.

“This is a problem that has been allowed to grow and grow for decades.”

Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union’s goal for the fishing industry was simple.

“We want to have the fishing and processing done by New Zealand operators employing New Zealand workers on decent wages and conditions. We want the phase out of joint ventures. They’ve been a failure, that has resulted in New Zealand being identified internationally as a place where disgraceful practices are condoned.”

“If overseas crews are phased out, the abuse, exploitation and underpayment will be solved.”

Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union would be working with other bona fide unions and the International Transport Workers’ Federation to discuss ways to organize local and international labour in the industry.

The announcement of a ministerial inquiry into foreign fishing charter vessels in New Zealand waters is long overdue.

The Maritime Union says ongoing problems with the abuse and underpayment of overseas crews on joint venture vessels in New Zealand waters have become an international embarrassment.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the Maritime Union and International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) had intervened in numerous cases in the past few years.

“We are interested to see the industry is now calling for the inquiry, but we have been calling for an inquiry like this for years. It has been a long time coming.”

Mr Fleetwood says the current regulation of the New Zealand fishing industry and joint venture operators using international crews was being shown up as a failure.

“It is time to lance this boil. There needs to be a thorough investigation of the industry and immediate concrete steps, not just talk, to clamp down on the abuse and exploitation of overseas crews in New Zealand waters.”

Mr Fleetwood says the Union will be demanding that the ministerial inquiry is not just a “smother job” that sits on the bookshelf gathering dust.

“This must not be a box ticking exercise. We know what the problems are, what we need now is action, proper regulation, proper enforcement, to clean up a mess that has been allowed to grow for years under successive Governments.”

He says the Union wants an industry with world class wages and conditions for all workers, and employment opportunities for New Zealand workers in their own industry.

Mr Fleetwood says a recent incident where 32 crew left the Oyang 75 in Lyttelton earlier this month was an example of some of the problems in the industry.

The company responsible for chartering the Korean vessel, Southern Storm Fishing, were the charterers of the vessel Oyang 70 that sank last year with the deaths of six crew.

In May 2011, Southern Storm Fishing held a “media event” in Dunedin where journalists were invited on board to inspect their new replacement vessel, the Oyang 75.

But less than two months later, the crew of the new flagship of their fleet have abandoned the Oyang 75 en masse in Lyttelton, claiming physical and verbal abuse and underpayment.

In the latest development, a diplomat from the US State Department is currently visiting New Zealand as part of a investigation into global “human trafficking” which includes the abuse of fishing crews.

Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union is meeting with Ambassador Luis CdeBaca during his visit tomorrow to discuss concerns about the abuse of international crews in the global and New Zealand fishing industry.

Background to Oyang 75
A pattern of activities has been identified by the Maritime Union going back several years, in relation to the operations of Southern Storm Fishing and their vessels and crews.

ShinJi and Mr Hyun Choi
Department of Labour is reported to be currently investigating claims of abuse and underpayment of crew on ShinJi.
Crew members told media they left the vessel in Auckland several weeks ago due to underpayment and mistreatment.
The Shin Ji is chartered by Christchurch-based Tu Ere Fishing, went into voluntary administration recently.
A director of the company is Hyun Choi, also a director of Southern Storm Fishing, currently engaged in the Oyang 75 crew dispute in Christchurch.
In 2009 the ITF and Maritime Union investigated the Shin Ji after 12 Indonesian crew left the vessel.
The reasons they gave for leaving the vessel were non payment of wages, problems with harassment from officers, and substandard living and working conditions.
ITF inspector Grahame MacLaren reported a number of problems – “the vessel was in need of a good clean and there were large areas of rust on the deck in the galley, no bed linen, no hot water with the crew expected to shower in cold sea water. We also pointed out that the life rafts were almost inaccessible due to fishing gear being stowed all around them.”
NZ$52,776 in back pay was secured for the crew by the ITF and the crew were repatriated back to Indonesia despite initial resistance from the charterers.

Southern Storm media promotion
Southern Storm represented by publicist Glenn Inwood of Omeka Communications in Oyang 75 media promotion in May 2011. Inwood’s previous clients have included Japanese whaling industry and tobacco companies.

The $1000 “Bounty”
An advertisement placed in the Otago Daily Times in 2007 offers an $1000 bounty for information about missing crew member Kismo Pakistan who left his vessel the FV Oyang 70 in Dunedin on 5 June 2007.
The contact listed in the advertisement was Fisheries Consultancy Limited of Lyttelton and the advertisement was authorized by Southern Storm Fishing (2007) Limited of Christchurch.

Breach of RMA
In 2009 Southern Storm was found guilty of breaching the Resource Management Act following an oil spill from the Oyang 70 in Port Nelson. They contested that they were not the responsible party, but the judge found otherwise.

Sinking of Oyang 70
Southern Storm chartered vessel Oyang 70 sinks on 18 August 2010, 400 nautical miles off Otago coast. Six crew drowned.
Surviving crew kept away from media when taken ashore. The crew were then bused to a secret location, with police closing the Lyttelton tunnel so a media contingent could not follow the survivors’ bus through to Christchurch.
A former police officer involved in the case stated that crew were “treated appallingly” (Sunday Star Times, 12 April 2011).
“All the survivors came with the same story, and they all said they were hauling a bag of fish,” says Greg Lyall, captain of the Amaltal Atlantis, who rescued the survivors.
“The vessel lent over to one side – the factory filled up with water and the engine room filled up with water. There were no alarms, no lighting, nothing, and within 10 minutes the boat was gone and most of them had to swim to the life rafts.”

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).