Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union is warning that New Zealand workers are under threat due to lack of regulation and enforcement of standards in industry.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says a lax attitude and a view that workers are expendable is present in industry and Government.

“The Prime Minister especially has worked hard to disconnect himself as being responsible for anything except appearing on the cover of magazines and radio chat shows.”

Mr Fleetwood says the reality is that New Zealanders and overseas workers were being harmed in the workplace due to slack regulation.

He says there are three clear examples that should be making people ask questions.

“As the inquiry for the Pike River disaster goes on, we are seeing a picture of lack of regulation and lack of responsibility in key areas. Why are we not demanding accountability at the top level?”

“The Prime Minister has said the bodies of the workers would be recovered but this had not happened.”

“The Prime Minister has stated that New Zealand mining regulations are inferior to Australia. What has he done about it, and what is he intending to do about it?”

Mr Fleetwood says the deaths of workers in the maritime industry included two as yet unexplained sinking of overseas fishing vessels working out of New Zealand ports, the Oyang 70 and the No 1 Insung.

“Once again, the poor standards that are permitted in this industry are likely to have been a contributing factor.”

The recent grounding of the Rena should have been a further wake up call about the decline of standards in the maritime industry, but even this dramatic event had failed to cause lasting concern.

“The European Union is currently deciding whether it will even permit Filipino trained seafarers in their waters. This is not even an issue in New Zealand. Why not? Are we happy just to wait for the next incident?”

He says Maritime Union members work in the offshore oil and gas industry and would insist on high standards, but there was no confidence in the Government’s attitude.

Mr Fleetwood says the reality is workers have to take the lead and make the workplace safe.

“In the current environment, profit comes first for many employers and that has a big impact. Unless we have strong unions on the job to defend health and safety, and legislation that is backed with some teeth, then we will see more and more preventable deaths and injuries.”

The Maritime Union says the budget announced today is a step backward for transport infrastructure.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the lack of support for the maritime industry is a glaring omission.

Mr Hanson says the abandonment of the SeaChange strategy to build up New Zealand shipping in favour of building more roads is a bad mistake.

“The Government has poured money into roading as the world hits peak oil and climate change. They are moving in exactly the wrong direction. Shipping is the transport mode of the future that is low-impact, environmentally responsible and cost effective in the long term, but has been sidelined.”

Mr Hanson says New Zealand is dependent on maritime trade, but has allowed its coastal fleet to be decimated by opening the coast to foreign vessels.

He says building roads is putting good money after bad and is only prolonging crunch time by relocating traffic jams around badly designed cities.

Mr Hanson says the Maritime Union has several key goals for a secure and stable New Zealand economy.

These include the public ownership of key assets such as ports, the development of a national ports strategy “KiwiPort” to get ports working together, the strengthening of job security by reducing casualization of jobs, and support for the development of New Zealand shipping.

He says it appears working class people will be paying for the instability of the global economic system, which served a minority rather than the majority.

“The simple fact is that the world is in the grip of a deepening economic crisis brought about by unregulated global capitalism. The National Party supports more of the same.”