Port of Auckland Dispute
The bitter industrial dispute at the Port of Auckland has raised a number of serious issues which go beyond the port itself including casualisation, contracting out, privatisation, stability of hours of work, and adherence to good faith bargaining over a collective agreement. The Council of Trade Unions has forwarded to its affiliates a brief outline of the dispute which follows.
Information Release - Council of Trade Unions
19 January 2012
Over 300 workers at the Ports of Auckland and their families are facing an uncertain future.
Their livelihoods are under threat.
Their employer has threatened to sack them unless their union accepts every one of the employer demands in collective bargaining negotiations.
That’s not negotiation. It is intimidation and bullying. Worse still, it’s being done by a company that is owned by the people of Auckland.
These employer demands would mean workers having no security with their rostered shifts.
That means not knowing whether you’ll be sent home after three hours or told to work a 12-hour shift. Or not having any work at all.
That’s not flexibility. That’s ruining a worker’s family life for an irresponsible business model that won’t deliver for Auckland.
Ports of Auckland (POAL) management want to contract out port workers jobs and create a totally casualised workforce.
Casualisation is harming New Zealand. Employers demand workers to be on standby, on call, working a few hours here or there. Even where there is already a lot of flexibility, workers are expected to give up any hope of a structured and healthy life.
At the heart of the dispute between the Maritime Union and the Ports of Auckland management is a fundamental issue: whether you as a worker should know what hours you will be working from one day to the next.
The current collective employment agreement at Ports of Auckland allows for flexibility. Up to a quarter of the current workforce can be employed on a casual basis and another quarter as permanent part-time workers.
The Maritime Union agreed to more flexibility and to an ongoing productivity improvement process. Workers are seeking only a modest 2.5% pay increase. At present the base rate of pay for a stevedore is $27 an hour or around $56,000 for those on a 40-hour week. Ports of Auckland have shifts over a 24 hour period, 365 days a year.
In September 2011 Ports of Auckland congratulated its workers for achieving the “best ever” crane moves per hour on the port for the previous month.
But the employer walked away from mediation – and CEO Tony Gibson plans to sack these workers and contract out their jobs.
This is not only distressing for the workers and their families but it is damaging to the Port, which is owned by the people of Auckland.
There is an agenda being promoted to sell the port off or contract out port work and leave the Council simply owning the land.
A Government Commission has just published an unfinished report that calls for the ports to be privatised and de-unionised. This is not a coincidence.
Ports of Auckland belongs to the people of Auckland. It must remain a public asset that benefits all of us and treats its workers with fairness and respect.
More info and to help with the campaign see www.munz.org.nz
