Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says National’s announcement of attacks on workers rights will be fought hard.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the restrictions on union access to workplaces was a serious attack on the right of New Zealand workers to organize.

“National have now dropped any pretense of moderation in their policies – the phoney war is over and National’s agenda of tax cuts for the rich, privatization and now tearing up the basic rights of working people is out there for all to see.”

He says that National is embarking on a repeat of extremist 1990s policies but doing it in a more cunning way.

“The fact they have a smiley face fronting it this time around does not change the sinister intention.”

He says the attack on workers and their organizations is not surprising as the Government had failed to deal with unemployment, which was now rising again, and were looking to go on the offensive.

Mr Fleetwood says any attacks on workers would be met with fierce resistance.

He says unionized workers are one of the few obstacles to National creating a New Zealand where a majority of people would face an increasingly grim situation of high unemployment, poor wages, casualization and unaffordable housing and food.

“Unionized workers have better wages, better conditions, and safer workplaces – all reasons why National wants to bag unions and drag us back to the nineteenth century when workers had no rights.”

Mr Fleetwood says there is one way that New Zealand workers will “catch up with Australia.”

“That is to unionize and negotiate better pay.”

“The problem is that workers are getting less and less of a share of the wealth they produce which is being sucked up as corporate profits that accumulate to the already wealthy.”

Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union would campaign hard against any Government that threatened the hard won rights of the working class to organize.

He says all working New Zealanders must realize that the divide and rule approach of National was hurting their interests.

ENDS

For more information, contact Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood on 021364649

The Maritime Union of New Zealand has denounced attacks on unemployed New Zealand workers by the National Government.
John Key and Paula Bennett today announced plans to make life harder for the unemployed –at the same time that unemployment is at its highest since the dark days of the last National Government in the 1990s.
Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says many things are responsible for high unemployment in New Zealand, including the global recession, the instability of a deregulated economy, and a National Government with no ideas.
However, unemployed New Zealanders were not one of the major causes of unemployment.
“There may be a few people who want to stay unemployed, living on the poverty line. But there are tens of thousands more wanting work who can’t find it, shouldn’t we be helping them instead of blaming them?”
He says to put the boot into unemployed people when many had already suffered the effects of redundancy were the despicable actions of a heartless Government, attempting to whip up resentment between those in work against those without.
Mr Fleetwood says that with unemployment peaking recently at nearly 70 000, National was anxious to deflect the blame from their economic policies onto the victims of their policies.
“It’s not like we suddenly had thirty thousand people get lazy overnight and say, oh, I can’t be bothered working anymore, I’d prefer to be stuck on a benefit struggling to put food on the table.”
Mass unemployment means that tens of thousands of New Zealanders are unable to contribute to their society and are forced to accept miserable benefits to survive, which was an indictment on the free market economy.
“National don’t care about the human cost, but surely they must at least realize how inefficient it is.”
He says the Maritime Union has identified two areas where jobs could be created for New Zealanders immediately.
He says that New Zealand coastal shipping could provide jobs but was currently dominated by global shippers who paid no taxes in New Zealand but were permitted to move cargo on the New Zealand coast.
In addition, local workers had been forced out of the fishing industry by employers who chose to employ low wage overseas crews from poor countries.
Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union would defend all working class New Zealanders from attacks by the National Government.
“It is time to fight back against this Government’s anti-worker agenda.”

ENDS

For more information, contact Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood on 021364649

Today’s Timaru Herald features the Timaru public meeting this Thursday 17 September as their lead story.

Read the full story here.

The Maritime Union says immediate action is needed to stop the unfolding jobs crisis in New Zealand.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says he is concerned that the Government appears to be “sailing in circles” as New Zealand drifts further into recession.

Mr Hanson says the Prime Minister should be taking charge of employment, rather than leaving it to an inexperienced Minister like Paula Bennett.

“Mr Key’s jobs strategy appears to be based around avoiding being associated with any bad news. Since we are having a lot of bad news at the moment, this means the Prime Minister has become virtually invisible.”

Mr Hanson says the cause and the worsening effects of the global recession are due to the deregulated free market policies that National has promoted, and as a result they had a “passive approach” when an “active approach” was required.

Possible solutions the Union was promoting included a reduction in working hours with no loss in pay, extending protections for casual workers, requiring that the public sector purchased goods and services from local businesses, and public investment in productive enterprises that were experiencing problems due to the recession.

Mr Hanson says that talking about retraining was fine, but on its own such a policy was like a “three legged dog”, missing the essential requirement for viable industries that would employ the retrained workers.

“In recent weeks we have seen the devastation of areas of manufacturing as well as jobs evaporating due to technological advances and outsourcing to overseas. The guts is being ripped out of the New Zealand economy as we watch.”

He says mass layoffs from the public sector were compounding the problem and creating unnecessary disruption and insecurity simply because National were “anti public sector.”

Mr Hanson says the Maritime Union is concerned the political right-wing and private business interests will soon launch a major attack on workers wages and conditions to prop up profits.

“We already have a substantial number of people in New Zealand who are the ‘working poor’, they were struggling in the so-called good times, and these people simply have no personal reserves to deal with the financial pressures of unemployment.”

“Workers will be expected to pay for the recession caused by irrational economic policies that have led to inequality and a deeply troubled society.”

He says successive Governments have pushed free trade ideology as the solution to New Zealand’s problems, and now New Zealand was finding that relying on one or two commodities with volatile international markets was dangerously naive.

Mr Hanson says that well paid, secure jobs could be created in the maritime and fishing industry, rather than dead-end schemes like the plan to funnel unemployed young people towards unskilled jobs such as the infamous “McDonalds” scheme from WINZ.

ENDS

For more information contact Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson on 021390585

The Maritime Union says the New South Wales State Government could teach John Key one or two things about protecting jobs.

Nearly $4 billion worth of NSW government goods and services including uniforms, cars and even trains, will have to be sourced from Australian companies in order to boost local production and jobs, in an upcoming budget annoucement that has been welcomed by Australian unions.

Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says this idea should be adopted immediately in New Zealand.

“We have watched the collapse of LWR recently with the loss of large numbers of jobs – so why are we not insisting that Government requirements for uniforms and clothing go through this and other local companies?”

He says that with rising unemployment, and the accelerating collapse of the manufacturing sector in New Zealand, the Government must stop sitting on its hands and take practical action.

“Being over dependent on volatile goods and services like agricultural commodities and tourism is not working for New Zealand.”

Mr Hanson says the Government had “gone quiet” on securing local jobs recently.

He says New Zealand’s fundamentalist approach to free trade was backfiring badly, as witnessed by the recent unilateral abandonment of free trade in New Zealand dairy products by the United States.

“It is time for New Zealand to lose its religious faith in free trade theories, and instead start to operate in the real world, with a commitment to New Zealand workers rather than global corporations.”

The Maritime Union is also supporting local ownership of ports and the re-introduction of cabotage where New Zealand coastal shipping is given priority in New Zealand waters.

The Maritime Union says a plan to make Ports of Auckland workers redundant will be met with a strong response.

A national executive meeting of the Maritime Union held in Wellington today endorsed national action in support of the workers whose jobs are threatened at Ports of Auckland.

Representatives of the Auckland workers addressed the national meeting which unanimously endorsed industrial and legal strategies to fight job losses.

Ports of Auckland management announced on Tuesday 12 May they are effectively shutting down the permanent workforce at the Bledisloe Terminal at the Ports of Auckland with the loss of 28 jobs.

Maritime Union of New Zealand Local 13 President Denis Carlisle says industrial action is inevitable unless the Port Company changes direction on destroying livelihoods.

“Many of these workers are under 35 – they have young families and heavy responsibilities, and we are not going to let them be cut adrift by an irresponsible management. Behind every redundancy is a family, children, mortgages, and the inevitable financial and personal hardships.”

He says the Port Company has a social responsibility to its workers and was showing a short-term mindset.

“This so-called restructuring is about attacking the workforce, terms and conditions, and the Union will not allow the company to get away with it.”

The Maritime Union says international support from global maritime and transport workers is being organized.