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

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.”

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

Burmese crew members aboard the fishing vessel “Sky 75″ in the Port of Timaru have approached unions with a plea for help, a day after their vessel was “named and shamed” in an international report.

The fishing vessel “Sky 75″ was featured as a specific example of crew abuse in an international report from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) that was presented to a United Nations meeting on maritime law that opened in New York yesterday.

New Zealand ITF co-ordinator Kathy Whelan says the “Sky 75″ is a repeat offender, and the vessel had already come to the attention of the ITF when 10 Indonesian crew left the Korean registered fishing vessel ‘Sky 75′ in the Port of Nelson in September 2005.

“We find it amazing that after all the publicity and all the promises of action after that incident, the same vessel has turned up with similar problems.”

She says a letter from crew members asked for help with their conditions of employment.

Crew say they are owed two months wages and they have been working on average 20 hours a day, when their agreement specifies 8 hours per day, and no overtime money had been received.

The letter from the Burmese crew says that the Korean officers aboard the “Sky 75″ had threatened abuse against the crew and ordered them to work by kicking them with their boots and hitting with sticks.

The cost of safety and working equipment was deducted from their salaries, and meals were insufficient and irregular.

The “Sky 75″ is operated by the New Zealand company Poseidon, based in Hamilton.

The crew have also asked the Port Authority to look at concerns they have about the seaworthiness of the vessel.

Ms Whelan says the ITF will be investigating the problems onboard the vessel and have asked for a Department of Labour inspection.

She says that Third World conditions are becoming the norm in parts of the New Zealand fishing industry, with the industry unwilling or unable to fix the problems.

“The answer lies in proper regulation of the industry and serious enforcement of the law, not in negotiating deals with rogue elements in the fishing industry.”

She says the Maritime Union has approached the Department of Labour to gain information on the “Sky 75″ under the Official Information Act.

The Maritime Union says that a group of Ukrainian fishermen in Lyttelton are victims of the lack of regulation of the fishing industry.

The 27 crew members are currently onboard the FV Malakhov Kurgan in the port of Lyttelton where they are refusing to leave until they are paid backpay owing to them, and held a picket this morning at the gates of the port.

Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the 27 crew members have not been paid the correct wages for the time they have worked.

He says a further group of fishermen were sent home after accepting a lumpsum payment, but the Maritime Union has concerns about the way the situation has been handled, and the message this is giving fishing companies and charterers.

Mr Hanson says it appears that crew members have been threatened that they may be jailed when they return home unless they give up their claim.

He says the Maritime Union will support the crew and is doing what it can to resolve the situation in a positive way for them.