Maritime Union of New Zealand

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.

Mr Hanson says the best way to reduce crime and social breakdown is stable employment for New Zealand workers and their families, which were under attack from job losses, casualization, low wages, shift work and increasing economic and social pressures.

“New Zealanders needs secure jobs, not jail cells.”

During the June 2009 quarter, the number of people unemployed reached 138,000, according to Statistics New Zealand. In the last year, the number of unemployed has grown by 48,000.

Mr Hanson says the Government has canned any investment in coastal shipping in favour of irresponsibly pushing heavy trucking, which will clog highways and push up greenhouse gas emissions.

He says the fishing industry is also another “disaster area” for jobs.

He says recent revelations in the TV documentary “The Great New Zealand Fishing Scandal” showed how New Zealand’s natural resources had been plundered by overseas fishing vessels working in joint ventures with New Zealand quota holders.

The use of underpaid and often mistreated overseas crews kept costs down for the operators, while New Zealanders had been forced out of the industry.

“The Government of New Zealand should be doing something about jobs for New Zealanders. There is nothing to proud of in the new low they have sunk to where we can incarcerate New Zealanders in shipping containers but not have them working in our maritime industry.”

Mr Hanson says “cabotage” on the New Zealand coast would reserve coastal shipping for New Zealand shipping, and the “New Zealandization” of the fishing industry would mean the same in that sector.

This would mean greater ability to regulate and ensure that New Zealand workers had employment opportunities in their own industry with secure, unionized jobs and decent wages and conditions.

The Maritime Union says a new employment Bill before Parliament is good news for casual workers.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says that many New Zealand workers are struggling with the insecurity of casual work.

The Maritime Union welcomed the Bill which featured increased powers for Labour Inspectors to determine whether workers were fixed-term or permanent employees, and tests to determine whether a worker has progressed from casual to permanent employment.

Mr Hanson says the Bill will also address issues where workers carrying out work for a controlling third party can add that party to a personal grievance, and specifies such workers must be employed on terms and conditions no less favourable than any collective agreement which covers direct employees.

He says this means that employers will not be able to avoid their obligations by contracting out work simply to undermine wages and conditions.

“We see this as a step forward in ensuring all workers are treated fairly and is part of the solution in stopping the creation of an underclass of casualized, short-term workers.”

The Maritme Union acknowledges the work put into the casualization issue by Ruth Dyson MP and Peter Brown MP.

Mr Hanson says the problems with casual work are widespread in the maritime industry as well as many other industries.

“Casualization is a major social problem. If a worker is employed on a day to day basis, with no security of income, they are unable to plan their lives or obtain mortgages or loans. This can have major impacts on family life, health and community activities.”

Mr Hanson says he would expect any political party that wanted to support New Zealand families would be backing the new Bill.

“We hear a lot from politicians about the need to help Kiwi families, and this is one very practical way that we can ensure hard working New Zealanders have some stability and security in their lives to help bring up their families.”

The Maritime Union has welcomed a Government announcement that it intends to improve protections for casual workers.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the Union has been arguing since 1991 that the practice of employing casual labour on the waterfront is degrading and unfair.

“It is similar to the situation of a century ago when workers lined up for work at the port gate, and many were victimized or refused work.”

Mr Hanson says peaks and troughs of work in the maritime industry have not always required supplementary labour to the permanent workforce, but with the disestablishment of the Waterfront Industry Commission in 1989 the permanent workforce had become increasingly casualized.

He says the situation has lead to casual workers on the books of up to four employers in their port, in some cases surviving for many years “on the end of a phone, waiting for a call.”

“We have cases in New Zealand of waterfront workers who have been employed in a port for up to fifteen years as casuals, waiting in vain for an opportunity to get a permanent job with the security that gives.”

Mr Hanson says these casual workers are denied training and a career path with future prospects, denied secure wages and conditions, denied regular hours, and denied the ability to plan their lives.

“The system effectively makes them second class citizens with bad effects on their working lives, families and community, as they work from day to day and have no ability to secure mortgages and a regular income.”

He says the responsibility for the current problems largely lies with international shippers whom play off port against port, stevedore against stevedore, leading to a race to the bottom as the easiest way to save money is through creating a pool of insecure casual labour.

Mr Hanson says the Maritime Union has proposed a solution that a regulated pool of casuals is established in each port that stevedores employ workers from, and draw permanent labour from.

He says the Union welcomes Government action on this pressing social issue but much work remains to be done.

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

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says comments by corporate heads of New Zealand’s fishing industry shows their outlook is outdated.

He says some fishing bosses are trying to undermine a Government plan to ensure market rates were paid to all fishermen in New Zealand waters.

Mr Hanson says the moves by the Government are the result of a long process of investigation, and needed to happen to bring New Zealand into line with International Labour Organization (ILO) standards.

He says the claim by Aotearoa Fisheries CEO Robin Hapi that the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process was being undermined by raising wages in the industry was out of line.

Mr Hanson says the treaty settlement process was about fixing historical injustices, not creating present day injustices of slave labour rates for workers.

“What about the jobs for young New Zealand workers Maori, Pakeha and others? Where do they fit into the picture?”

Mr Hanson also disagreed with claims by Sanford CEO Eric Barratt that higher pay for fishermen was “social engineering” and “against New Zealand’s interests.”

He says the real interests of New Zealand should be paying workers a living wage, and ensuring there was a skilled and employed New Zealand workforce.

The situation should be examined in the light of the Department of Labour report into industry practices and the comments of other industry heads.

He says that other industry operators, such as Andrew Talley of Talley’s Fisheries, say that the use of foreign charter vessels are being subsidized by slave labour rates.

Mr Hanson says the Department of Labour report in May last year found some foreign crew were being paid as little as $195 a month, with 40c in every dollar being gouged by employment agents in the home country.

The report also indicated abuse and violence against crew members, and a poor attitude to safety at sea.

“There are operators out there who are prepared to pay appropriate rates, employ and train local workers where possible, and raise the bar on substandard conditions, and if others aren’t prepared to get on board, then too bad for them.”