UPDATED Tuesday January 17: The Maritime Union says it might cancel a further strike planned for late January if all union workers are given time off to attend a meeting about plans to contract out their jobs.
UPDATED Tuesday January 17: The Maritime Union says it might cancel a further strike planned for late January if all union workers are given time off to attend a meeting about plans to contract out their jobs.
Union president Garry Parsloe says the company has refused to allow this.
Last night, the union issued a sixth strike notice to the Ports of Auckland, this time for a 24 hour strike starting 7am January 31.
Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson says the latest strike notice is “highly irresponsible”
“This sixth strike will do nothing to end the dispute other than to strengthen our resolve to sort this out once and for all,” he says.
Third party contractors already operate the conventional (non-container terminal) port facilities in Auckland.
UPDATED Monday January 16: Many port workers will leave the country to seek work offshore if their jobs are contracted out as proposed by the Ports of Auckland, the Maritime Union warns.
Union president Garry Parsloe says port workers are telling him they'll go somewhere where they can get a better deal – like Australia.
"Who can blame them?” he says, adding that the “enormous investment” made in training a skilled workforce will be wasted if workers leave the port. The port pays for port workers to be trained.
Contact negation talks stalled again last week and port management told NBR it was pushing ahead with plans to contract out the workforce. Staff meetings have been held and requests for tenders mailed.
Mr Parsloe says there is a serious issue in New Zealand with employers attempting to boost profits by slashing wages and conditions of employment, adding that the Ports of Auckland dispute was a classic example of this trend.
"You aren't going to get a productive, high skill economy based on continually reducing wages, undermining conditions and ordering people to work around the clock when and if the employer feels like it."
UPDATED January 12: Today's six-hour mediation session with the Maritime Union was frustrating as the union "seems to be still failing to grasp the need for fundamental change," Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson says.
"The parties are still miles apart. We reviewed some new proposals from the union, but they are only around the margins."
CTU President Helen Kelly was part of the talk for the first time today.
Mr Gibson says the port told the union it will press on with plans to outsource its workforce.
“The challenge for the union is to show us an appropriate counter offer that offers the same productivity benefits, and flexibility, by way of a Collective Agreement. “Whatever the union comes up with has to stack up in a business sense compared to an outsourced labour model,” he says.
Mr Gibson says time is running out with customer looking for an outcome and employee jobs uncertain.
"We have to protect our existing business, win back the business we’ve lost, and put the foundations in place to achieve sustainable growth over the long term, in the interests of all stakeholders."
He said today's talks covered not only the collective agreement, but the contracting out proposal and redundancies underway as a result of the loss of business from Maersk and Fonterra.
Contract negotiations will continue as scheduled on Thursday but the Ports of Auckland has rejected the Maritime Union's latest offer and will move ahead with plans to contract out its labour force.
Ports of Auckland CEO, Tony Gibson said last night that the union’s counter-offer "failed to deliver the rapid improvements needed in work practices and productivity".
The loss of the Maersk and Fonterra business meant that the situation had changed dramatically over the last few weeks, he said.
“We’ve run out of time. Without rapid changes towards substantially more efficient labour practices, more customers and more jobs will be lost in the coming weeks," he said, adding that the port had been working for 11 months to achieve the changes needed.
As signalled before Christmas, alongside the ongoing collective bargaining process, the port is progressing plans for redundancies as a result of the loss of the Maersk and Fonterra business, and will begin a consultation process this week over a proposal to contract out its labour force.
It is holding a series of briefing meetings with staff this week to advise them of the process.
Mr Gibson said that if the proposed contract labour model was to proceed, he expected that the majority of affected employees would continue to work for the Port as employees of the selected contractors.
Meanwhile, union workers at the port began another 48-hour strike last night, the fifth since November.
