Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union says the new rules to improve wages and conditions for overseas fishing crews announced today are good news for workers.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the announcement means the industry will be brought into line with the rest of New Zealand business.

“Despite a co-ordinated campaign by special interests in the industry, the Government has made the right decision and the principled decision.”

Mr Hanson says the move will lead to improvements in conditions for overseas crew, meaning less cases of abuse and shipjumping.

“Local workers will once again be able to afford to seek work in the fishing industry.”

Mr Hanson says there is a lot of work that needs to be done but the groundwork is in place.

“The Maritime Union believes that this move is a positive one for the future of the New Zealand fishing industry and those who work in it.”

The Maritime Union says the free trade deal with China is the biggest threat to workers in New Zealand since the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act in 1991.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the importation of short-term, casualized skilled labour being paid the minimum wage will be a disaster.

“This is obviously going to have a major and negative effect on wages and conditions in New Zealand.”

He says that a New Zealand company or Chinese company that sets up business here in a free trade environment and imports cheap labour will immediately force other New Zealand companies to do the same in order to survive.

Mr Hanson says the current situation in the fishing industry was a clear example of what to expect.

“What happens now is a fishing company advertises for staff at extreme low rates of pay in the knowledge that New Zealand workers won’t apply, and the company is then approved to bring in cheap overseas labour by the Immigration Department.”

“We have politicians lining up to defend a minimum wage economy based on overseas labour – local workers don’t get a look in with these people.”

The Maritime Union of New Zealand shares concerns by the Green Party, New Zealand First and Alliance about the free trade proposals.

Mr Hanson says the Union movement and workers have to wake up to what is happening.

“This is not where it ends, this is just the first step in a process and the Government needs to be honest about the kind of pressures that are coming on them in this free trade deal.”

Mr Hanson urged the Government to look at the European Community where the use of cheap labour moved across borders was creating social havoc.

“Ask your local MP what and how a free trade agreement with China will work, and they won’t have the smallest idea of the implications – let alone the person in the street.”

He says that any free trade deal is a one-way street, and was a grave threat to some of the basic aspects of democracy.

“Any farmer who thinks this is the way forward should reflect that in the near future the only sheep he will see will be at his nearest supermarket and will be grown, branded, packed and frozen in China.”

For further information, contact Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson on 021390585
or Maritime Union communications officer Victor Billot on 021482219

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says that growing pressure to bring unskilled labour into Australia under a free trade agreement has confirmed its worst fears.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says that proposals to allow companies to import unskilled Chinese workers into Australian ports and construction sites gave a clear message to New Zealand workers.

“This is the equivalent of a huge neon sign flashing out the warning that free trade deals will inevitably lead to a collapse in wages, conditions and workers rights. It is time we have a national debate on free trade, and get the issue away from the control of bureaucrats and private interest groups.”

The Australian Financial Review has reported the Chinese Government has put Canberra on notice it would demand Australia go further on the issue of temporary entry of workers in the free trade agreement now under negotiation.

Shipping, construction and mining are three key areas that Beijing has nominated as key to the labour negotiations that start at the end of this year.

The Chinese government has used separate World Trade Organisation negotiations to raise the issue of Australian port deregulation, by wanting to have ship crews loading and unloading ships, rather than local workers.

The Australian Financial Review said China might be interested in a point-to-point Chinese owned and staffed shipping line stretching from inland Australia to inland China.

Mr Hanson says the recent failed attempt by Hong Kong based multinational Hutchison to buy into the Port of Lyttelton earlier this year was an example of the “slippery slope of free trade.”

“Obviously the multinationals would much rather have low-cost labour employed under Chinese conditions working in New Zealand, just as they would in Australia. China is a police state where workers have no independent unions or right to organize, and those conditions are going to be coming down the line to us unless we start to question the free trade syndrome.”

Mr Hanson says New Zealand has been hypnotized with propaganda about the benefits of market access for New Zealand products to overseas markets.

“However no one seems to grasp that China will want something out of the deal, and they have now put it on the table for Australia. Why should the situation be any different in New Zealand?”

He says it is very important the issue does not get turned into a debate on race and immigration, but instead focussed on the real issue of free trade being used to play workers off against each other in a global race to the bottom.

“It is the old tactic of divide and rule, turning workers against workers, on a grand scale. The issue is about wages, conditions and the right of all workers to secure jobs and human rights. There’s no free in free trade for the workers.”

Mr Hanson says that if people want an example of the reality of work conditions under free trade, they should look at overseas workers in the New Zealand fishing industry.

“They are underpaid, over-worked, and as numerous reports have indicated suffer from poor safety conditions and are often abused and even assaulted. What happens when that situation moves ashore?”

He says the Maritime Union is planning for strong and co-ordinated national action if there is any attempt to undermine conditions through free trade agreements, and has offered its support to Australian unions.

ENDS

The Maritime Union of New Zealand and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) have obtained backpay for a group of Indonesian fishermen who jumped ship last week.

The nine Indonesian crew members left the fishing trawler Marinui in Dunedin on Friday 10 March.

The crew members were sent to Christchurch where they were interviewed by Maritime Union officials, and then travelled to Auckland International Airport today where they were met by union officials representing the ITF.

ITF New Zealand co-ordinator Kathy Whelan says the crew members were assisted by the ITF in negotiating back pay and medical costs from their employers, and did not have to pay for their own return airfares.

She says the ITF is continuing to investigate the payment of at least the minimum wage to overseas fishermen in New Zealand waters.

The Maritime Union has welcomed New Zealand signing up to an international crackdown on illegal fishing – which also provides a clear opportunity to solve the abuse and exploitation of maritime workers.

Fisheries ministers from Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile, Namibia and New Zealand have agreed to a plan which will mean global tracking of fishing vessels, as well as an online database of their names, location and history, to help uncover illegal fishing.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the plan means that “half of the problem” is being seriously addressed.

“The next step is to ensure fishing workers – and all seafarers of whatever country of origin – are being paid a decent wage and working under decent conditions.”

He says the global tracking system could be widened out to all shipping, to ensure workers were not being abused or exploited.

“Deregulation has failed. The global maritime free market has failed. It will require co-ordinated international action to clean up the monopolistic, unaccountable mess of Flag of Convenience shipping.”

Mr Hanson says a 2005 report from the Australian Government, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and the global conservation organization WWF, had revealed the pillaging of threatened fish stocks, human rights abuses and global pirate fishing operations were all linked problems.

“It is time to connect the dots between illegal fishing operations and countries that offer cheap registration services, or Flags of Convenience (FOC), to fishing vessels.”

He says the current moves by Government’s around the world vindicate the Maritime Union’s strong stance on both workers rights and environmental protection.

The Maritime Union has welcomed the announcement by Minister of Immigration David Cunliffe that the current system regulating overseas crews in the fishing industry will be overhauled.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says official recognition that crews are being underpaid and exploited is an important first step.

Mr Hanson says he agrees with the Government the seafood industry is important for New Zealand, but this does not translate into allowing employers to do whatever they want.

“The Maritime Union view is that local labour shortages have been created by rockbottom wages being offered that are not acceptable to New Zealand workers.”

Mr Hanson says that it is not acceptable that overseas fishing crews are only being paid the minimum wage as this has knocked the bottom out of industry wage rates, which is one obvious explanation for the so-called shortage of New Zealand workers.

“This is a dirty, hard and dangerous job, and there should be an industry standard rate of at least $15 per hour.”

This would mean a drop off in shipjumping, injuries and deaths, and money problems for crews, and would solve the labour shortage problem, he says.

“The problem is not a labour shortage but a shortage of good wages for workers.”

Mr Hanson says the Maritime Union will be providing a perspective and voice of workers to the Department of Labour in its 2006 review process.