Maritime Union of New Zealand

The Maritime Union says the announcement of a new extended international shipping service at the Ports of Auckland is great news.

An expanded service operated by global shipping lines OOCL and CMA CGM has been announced as part of its ANZEX service covering the New Zealand and Far East markets, that will boost shipping calls in Auckland.

Maritime Union National President Garry Parsloe says the decision is a vote of confidence in the port.

He says it reinforces the case made by the New Zealand Herald in a recent editorial that occasional labour disputes were an “improbable” factor for global shipping lines deciding their ports of call.

Mr Parsloe says it was unusual that the Maritime Union was having to welcome the new service, since Ports of Auckland management had been mute on the positive development.

“Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson’s bad news media machine has spent the last month bagging his own port, criticizing the workforce, saying its productivity is no good, praising up his competition and going out to bat for Maersk. But when they get some good news, they go all quiet. It’s like they want to promote all the negative stuff and ignore the successes.”

Mr Parsloe says the extended shipping service is a great boost for the Ports of Auckland and proved that the port had an excellent future.

He says that the announcement could be embarrassing for the Ports of Auckland CEO, given his recent comments that blamed the Maritime Union for loss of shipping calls at the port.

“However a little personal embarrassment is not important compared to the big picture that Ports of Auckland continues to attract new shipping and this reflects well on the port and its workforce.”

Mr Parsloe says he hopes that management would now concentrate on a successful conclusion to current employment negotiations rather than promoting non-issues.

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.”

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 Maritime Union of New Zealand says that too many workers being killed or injured on overseas vessels in and around New Zealand waters.

Five crew are confirmed dead and 17 missing presumed dead after the No. 1 In Sung sank at around 6.30am Monday 13 December, 2,700km south-east of Bluff.

The Korean-owned and operated fishing vessel visited Bluff annually from December 2006 to take on stores as it headed to the Ross Sea to fish for Antarctic toothfish.

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says while it is too early to comment on the reasons behind the sinking of the No. 1 In Sung, the Union was concerned that this was the second such incident in the past few months.

The Union offered its condolences to the families of the dead and its support to the survivors.

Mr Fleetwood said that the focus had to be on stopping disasters from happening.

“It shouldn’t be happening. We shouldn’t have to be pulling people out of the water. We have to ask in the 21st century why these incidents are now a regular event in our waters and nearby oceans.”

He said that as New Zealand search and rescue and New Zealand vessels were involved in rescue efforts, it was important that a New Zealand based inquiry was held to find out what had gone wrong.

In August 2010, three crew died after the Oyang 70 sank off the South Island.

Eyewitness reports indicate that an overweight net being pulled into the Oyang 70 caused it to destabilize and sink.

In another incident, two crew died from asphyxiation aboard the bulk carrier TPC Wellington in the Port of Whangarei in May 2010.

Mr Fleetwood says the Maritime Union has encountered ongoing problems experienced by overseas crews on merchant and fishing vessels, including health and safety issues.

A string of deaths, injuries, complaints of abuse and desertions have occurred over recent years.

The Maritime Union is calling for the abandonment of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, describing the free trade plan as a “sell out to global corporations.”

Maritime Union General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the great majority of New Zealanders and even our political representatives have little understanding of the implications of free trade deals like the TPPA.

“Free trade agreements such as the TPPA are giving global corporations more power to do as they want regardless of what is good for the majority of people.”

“Decisions that affect all of us are being made behind closed doors in free trade stitch ups.”

The Maritime Union is actively supporting a number of campaigns including TPPWatch and New Zealand Not For Sale that are calling for a halt to the TPPA and public accountability.

Mr Fleetwood says the free trade agreements harm the democratic rights of workers who make up the majority.

“These agreements are eroding democracy, in favour of control of our economy and society by powerful global corporations.”

He says that maritime workers work in the first globalized industry, the maritime industry, and understand what unregulated “free trade” means.

One example he says is the so-called “open coast” policy, that allows overseas owned and crewed vessels to carry New Zealand cargo between New Zealand ports, and which had devastated New Zealand shipping.

“As a result New Zealand is now a remote island trading nation that has allowed its shipping capability to be placed in jeopardy.”

The fishing industry had also had countless problems over the years with the abuse of overseas crew on overseas vessels fishing New Zealand waters.

Mr Fleetwood says the use of Flag of Convenience vessels and the creation of Ports of Convenience were a warning of where free trade deals could lead a small nation like New Zealand.

“One of the issues the Maritime Union has raised include the use of short-term cross border labour being used, which is becoming increasingly common around the world.”

“This is used to drive down wages and conditions and create a casualized, insecure workforce, hurting both the local workers and the imported workers.”

Other concerns of the Maritime Union include the privatization of assets such as ports and transport.

“New Zealand should be purchasing goods from local and public enterprises, and ensuring we maintain a balanced economy, with secure, high paid jobs.”

Mr Fleetwood says that New Zealand’s economy will always be based on trade, so the Union supported a system of global fair trade that worked to ensure secure jobs and balanced economic development.

He says there is a growing global movement against the deregulated free market and free trade policies that had caused economic disasters such as the global financial meltdown of the last several years.