THE MARITIME WORKER Wellington Branch Wellington Branch Newsletter Vol: 12 August (2021)
WELLINGTON BRANCH ELECTIONS 2021 Please be advised the Wellington Branch is seeking nominations for the following positions. Branch Secretary/Treasurer X 1 – Paid position, full time. Assistant Secretary 1 X Paid position, full time.
Friday 17th August 2021, and will close 10AMTuesday 31st August 2021. On Tuesday 14th September 2021, ballot forms will be mailed out to members. Ballot forms must be posted back and received no later than Tuesday 10AM, 26th October 2021. Ballot count starts at 10AMon this day.
President – X 1
Candidates will be notified, the National Returning Officer will be notified, then results will be released to members.
Vice President X 1 Wellington Women’s Rep X 1 Youth Representative X 1
Members eligible to vote are those currently registered with the Wellington Branch who reside in the Wellington regional area.
Branch Executives X 4
MUNZ RULES
Port Reps - Executive X 2
38.1. Nominations for the election of Officers and Members of the Branch/ Local Executive shall be written and received by the Branch/Local Secretary-Treasurer fourteen (14) days before the date of the elections.
Members standing for a Branch Officer’s position (President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, Assistant Secretary), you are entitled to provide a brief candidate profile of no more than 300 words with your nomination formto the Local Returning Officer, so this can be mailed out with ballot papers to members. Nominations will be open for a period of two weeks. Nomination forms will be available fromthe Wellington Branch Secretary on request from10AM
38.2. Each nomination must be signed by a proposer and seconder, who are financial members of the Branch/Local, and must contain notice in writing signed by the candidate that he or she consents to the nomination. Please ensure your POSTAL ADDRESS is up to date with the Local Returning Officer, Wellington Branch or National Office.
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not affected at all. Atlas The crew that delivered the Umuroa back to Batamhave now arrived back in NZat the end of July, and have completed their MIQ. StraitNZ (Bluebridge)
Jim King Wgtn Secretary/Treasurer
Wellington Secretary/Treasurer’s Report KiwiRail: Wage Round Negotiations September 2021 Bargaining was initiated on July 31st. Members’ Remits fromthe vessels have now been received and these will be compiled by the wage round teamon 2nd September. Once we have completed this task, I will then exchange our claims with KR-IILclaims at a time agreed to by both parties. The wage round teamis JimKing, John Whiting, Craig Harrison, Tony Mowbray, Fiona Mansell, Lynette Payne, Paul Baggott, Jimmy Mobbs and Gary Kershaw. High Performance High Engagement (HPHE) Core Crewing The final HPHECore Crew meeting was held on 8th July for sign off. This involved going over the agreed manning levels for the current vessels. We have now moved on to the HPHEclaimof short hand pay for catering attendants, and also discussed the TeamLeader Rate. That will leave us with the relativity rates. KR-IIL Catering & AB Casuals/Fixed Term Contracts OSM Met up with Peter Cranney to discuss our current situation with OSM. Peter has filed a claimon behalf of MUNZwith regards to OSMnot fulfilling its obligations relating to the MECA. The Guild are in the same situation. We are attacking this issue as a united front and both unions have agreed to share the costs.Amediation date has been set for 0930, 23rd August by hook-up. Swire’s –Offshore Solutions The Pacific Runners campaign is now completed. The vessel sailed from New Plymouth for Brisbane about the end of July then went on to Singapore. Our members re-delivered the vessel to Brisbane only. The Indonesian crew that joined the Runner in Brisbane created a few problems. The Indonesian Skipper and an Engineer tested positive for Covid-19 before they got on the plane to Australia, so they had to find replacements. This left the Runner at anchor, and two of the foreign crew members in Queensland MIQescaped into the public. When they were found they had to do further time in MIQ. This extended the Runner’s time at anchor.Swire’s got dispensation to man the Runner at anchor with only 10 crew (minus the skipper). For the run out to the anchorage fromport, there were only the NZskipper and navigation officer, the latter of whomwas accompanied by the pilot on the 5 to 6 hour pilotage.
2021 Wage Rounds, we had talks on 23rd June and 19th July. The MUNZteam is JimKing, John Whiting, Wayne McMahon and Darryl Robb. Both sides exchanged claims. After arduous and lengthy negotiations, StraitNZhave now prepared an offer for us to take back to the members. Ratification dates for the Feronia and Straitsman are set down for 4th &11th August. Trainees Still looking for keen and interested young people who would like to join our trainee database. Names are very slow to come in. I have asked many times at our stop work meetings, National Council, and through the branch newsletter, and still not having much success. Please ask your family and friends if they would like to be considered to ship out as a trainee, and if so please have themsubmit their CVto me so I can put their names into our database.
General Farewell to George McIntosh George has been an absolute delight to deal with. He has shown dedication and undying commitment to this union. Many of the older seafarers who have been around for a while have worked on a vessel with George somewhere along the line, myself included. I’ve worked with George over the past few years, but have known himfor more than forty. On a personal note, I amgrateful that I have been lucky enough to have worked with George, but more importantly have gotten to know himas a truly genuine person who has a very pragmatic and sensible approach to be able to deal with things, and the ability to go the extra mile for his workmates. On behalf of the Wellington Branch Executive, I thank George for all his contributions made to this union as a whole, but especially his dedication to the Wellington branch. George, you can be very proud of your achievements and everything you have done for the past 40 plus years as a truly loyal member of this great union. Many thanks for all your help. Legal advisors to look into whether PMcould stop foreign vessels from changing crews in New Zealand Jacinda Ardern said she has asked Crown Law, the Government’s legal advisors, to look into whether she could stop foreign vessels, with no connection to New Zealand, fromchanging crew at the country’s ports. The Prime Minister said “she sees no need for us to take unnecessary risks for a foreign vessel, where there is no benefit to New Zealand whatsoever.” Ardern asked for the advice about a week ago and was still waiting for it last I heard. Aspokeswoman for Crown Law said it was not able to comment due to privilege.
On the changeover day at the pilotage, I believe the Kiwi officers stayed on the bridge until the Indonesian crew boarded, then NZSkipper and Mate were taken back to Brisbane by launch.
Since August last year 1169 crew members have used a New Zealand port to board a foreign vessel, according to Customs. This number includes both fishing ships and cargo ships, and the crew members were spread across 157 different ships.
Our members changed over the day the vessel arrived in port, so they were
Ardern said foreign fishing crews do not need to get an exemption to come
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to New Zealand. Instead, they have to comply with the “Maritime Border Order”. AMinistry of Health spokeswoman said the order dictated that foreign fishing vessels could only enter New Zealand to unload their catch, reprovision, refuel or performa crew change. Crew members joining a vessel can be flown into the country and do not have to go through MIQif their vessel was departing “as soon as is reasonably practicable”, an MOHspokeswoman said. If crew members arrive before the vessel is set to depart, they can spend time in a “short-stay” MIQroombefore being driven to their vessel by MIQ staff. “During transportation ... all crew and the driver, froman MIQ-approved transport provider, wear PPE,” the spokeswoman said. The rules are different for ships that operate within Pacific or New Zealand waters. Those crew members must undergo 14 days of managed isolation before boarding their ships. New Zealand is presently hosting two foreign fishing vessels that had Covid-19 onboard. On July 13, officials confirmed 15 of 20 crew members on the Viking Bay, that had docked in Wellington, had Covid-19. The ship had earlier been refused entry to Port Taranaki because of two positive cases onboard. On July 15, it was confirmed a second ship, the Playa Zahara, had Covid-19 cases onboard. Sixteen of the 18 crew had tested positive. It had been moored outside Port Taranaki but then travelled to Lyttelton Port, where 13 crew went into quarantine. These crews do not legally have to pay for quarantine, but officials have said they were talking with fishing companies about paying a contribution. Wellington Branch Elections The Wellington Executive have agreed to bring the Branch elections forward one month. This is at the request of myself, because having the elections at the end of November is too close to Christmas, and would not be fair if a new person was to come into office, only to be left here by themselves over the Christmas period and to organise the Christmas functions, payments, along with the normal office duties of the Wellington Branch Secretary. The outgoing secretary or secretaries will now be able to work out their last four weeks with the newly elected Secretary and Assistant secretary, provided they are seeking assistance, and can provide support for themin areas that are of interest.
been constructive on your part, but I can certainly say they weren’t on ours. We were not prepared to keep rehashing our claims as the OEGwould not move on issues that we deemed extremely important, mainly the percentage increase, backdating and a couple of other claims.” “Therefore, I simply said put your offer in writing, and in good faith we will take it back to the members and they will decide. I also made the point very clear; “we know what our members are going for, and we know what the bottomline is.” “You will recall, our last wage round meeting started at 10.30amand we were all done by about 2pm. This would most certainly have indicated that we made either very little or no progress fromMUNZ’s perspective. We did set two days aside for this meeting.” “Again, I will take the OEG’s offer back to our members in good faith and request themto vote on it. I will get back to you in due course.”
Motions Motion: Branch Secretary and the Wellington Executive to put a motion on the floor to reduce the Xmas Functions fromtwo to one each year, with one family day and one Old Timers. Mover: JimKing Seconder: Tony Mowbray Carried, unanimously Rationale is to invest and utilise money elsewhere including the Assistant Branch Secretaries position. Motion from the Wellington Branch Executive Proposer: Fee, requested the Wellington branch to donate $200.00 to the Lower Hutt Women’s Refuge. Mover: Tony Seconder: Lynette Carried, unanimously Election of Local Returning Officer The August Stop Work meeting needs to elect a local returning officer for the upcoming Wellington Branch Elections. Mick Williams has stated he intends to stay on as the National Returning Officer until the end of his term, or until the completion of the Wellington Branch elections.
If assistance is not required, then the outgoing person will stay on for the remainder of the four weeks.The results of the Branch Elections will be released on October 26, instead of November 26.
As Mick is away in the UK, it was pointed out that if the National Council wants to elect a new National Returning Officer, then this is no problemfor Mick and he would stand down.
Offshore Employer Group (OEG)
NIWA
We completed talks with the OEGon 21st July at 1400. We left the talks not happy with what the OEGput on the table.
We are in the process of organising a date where we can get back into negotiating a percentage increase for our members.
We continued to go over our claims and rehashed them, but to no avail. In the end we just said put your offer on the table in writing and we’ll take it back to our members for ratification, then the members can put it to the vote.
We have until 30th September to come to an agreed figure that is acceptable to all.
On receiving the Terms of Settlement (TOS) fromthe OEG, they wrote, “Our thanks to you and your teamfor a constructive meeting yesterday. I wrote back to them: “Thanks for the TOS. I would like to make it very clear, the talks may have
We were meant to have heard fromNIWAin early August, but they have not contacted us. I have emailed themagain for an update. Wellington Branch Stop Work Meetings Next Stop Work Meeting is set down for Monday September 13th, 2021, to be held at the National Office 10am7th floor.
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The Maritime Worker Newsletter Please keep your emails, articles and pictures rolling in, they will be published in the next edition of the Wellington Maritime Worker, space permitting. Database The numbers: 8 X IR’s &AB’s, 3 X Cooks, – 7 X Stewards
Current wage rounds Offshore Oil &Gas April – Current – Ratification Mode StraitNZBluebridge (Vessels) – June – Ratification Mode NIWA– CPI Review July Kiwirail – Initiated Bargaining July 30th 2021 StraitNZ– (Picton Terminal) August 2021
Tony Mowbray #1154 Vice President Wellington Branch
Coastal shipping campaign is underway Seeing that the “Coastal Shipping” campaign is underway and making good headway with Ministers and business groups, I thought I would mention the Tasman Express line. The ‘Auckland’ and ‘Canterbury Express’ entered service on the Trans-Tasman in 1985 and were replaced by the ‘Sydney’ and ‘Wellington Express’ in 1996. Both the latter were readied for return to their owner in 2002. They just could not compete with the foreign flagged vessels that by then had open slather on these trade routes since the opening of our coast. First to go was the ‘Sydney Express’, and in the last half of June 2002 after her last Tasman crossing, she completed a voyage to the Pacific Islands for P&O Ned Llyod before heading to Singapore. The ‘Wellington’ completed a couple more Tasman runs before also heading to Singapore for redelivery in July of that year.
These two small ships alone cost our union sixteen jobs. All that was left were the ex-Union Company ships Rotoma and Rotoiti, on the Tasman Trade. These two ships were the last to have NZcrews and were operated by ANZDL, but these crews fell victimto foreign competition not long after. In December 2002 the ‘Sydney Express’, renamed ‘Matten’, had yet another of her notorious engine failures and capsized in heavy weather in the South China Sea. Fortunately all the crew were transferred to other vessels. Those who sailed in these ships would agree they were happy jobs and it certainly doesn’t feel like nearly twenty years have gone by since then. This is why we all must support our shipping campaign in any way we can. If all union members help out when needed, with any luck common sense can prevail and we may see our domestic routes employing NZseafarers once again.
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pregnancy policy for us seafarers. The previous policy was disgraceful, and our seafarers now have much better terms and conditions. My promotion of this year’s CTUBiennial Conference sparked a lot of interest among the audience, as there were quite a few new members at the forum who had never heard of it. Fiona Mansell Wellington Women’s Rep National Women’s Rep
MUNZsends record breaking numbers of women to union conferences First and foremost, big thanks and acknowledgements to Jim(Wellington Branch Secretary), Craig (National Secretary) and all other Branch Secs around NZfor educating, empowering and encouraging MUNZdelegates. Without your constant support and funding, we would not have the awesome opportunities we have been given today. Thank you all so much! NZCTU(NZ Council of Trade Unions) Delegates Training I attended an Advanced Training Course run by the CTUin Auckland with several other delegates fromMUNZ. Although the course content was in my opinion constructed mostly for teachers and educators, it was awesome to be able to mix and mingle with delegates fromother unions and get their perspective on organising in their workplaces. It became apparent that MUNZis a very different union in regards to how we train our delegates, as we mostly (if not entirely) go for on the job training rather than a classroomsetting. One thing I did come away with is that Employment Relations Education Leave (EREL) is something we must take advantage of more, since we have a certain amount each year per delegate. We will all benefit if more delegates step forward and attend these courses. RMTU(Rail, Maritime and Transport Union) Women’s Forum It was my pleasure and honour to attend as a guest speaker at this event with my comrade Annette McCauley. Big thanks to Rebecca Hauck (RMTUNational Women’s Rep) for extending the invitation out to us both. Her purpose and goals are the same ones I hold as MUNZNational Women’s Rep. I want us to network all over the country within our unions and with others, build strong relationships, support other members, encourage delegates training and education through courses and conferences.
I was proud to speak about increasing our MUNZdelegation fromfour back in 2017 to eight in 2019, and a whopping 24 delegates fromall over NZthis year. That’s the largest delegation of women fromone union to ever attend this particular conference! It was great to see some of the RMTUdelegates there for both days. This is what networking is all about! This is GROWTH! I look forward to us continuing to build relationships - and bridges, where necessary - between both unions. CTUWomen’s Conference 2021 ‘Maranga mai, wahine ma - rising above’ was this year’s conference theme. More than 170 union women attended the CTs Conference, hosted at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. What an amazing turn out it was for the two-day event, particularly considering all the challenges this world has faced with a global pandemic, several lockdowns and sadly hundreds (even thousands) of job losses. The Conference kicked off with a beautiful welcome, as always, to the delegates attending fromall around the country and different unions. This was the third CTUWomen’s Conference I’ve attended, and it did not disappoint even in the absence of international speakers. Keynote speakers included NZCTUNational Secretary Melissa AnsellBridges, who talked about the importance of Fair Pay Agreements. She is a well-spoken woman with a deep belief in the power of working people uniting together to create social change. Jan Tinetti is currently the Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Women and Associate Minister of Education. I was intrigued not so much by what she had to say, but more by the questions and challenges delegates raised about housing, health and education issues. I think Jan has a lot of work ahead of her if she wants to fulfil her belief that the government has a role to play in ensuring all New Zealanders have access to the services, they need to help thembe the best they can be. Rebecca Macfie has worked in journalismfor 32 years. She is the author of ‘Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and why 29 men died’, and more recently wrote a biography of former CTUleader Helen Kelly. Rebecca told us she believes if Helen was alive today, she would see our housing crisis as a worker’s crisis and would campaign for change.
After all the introductions it was interesting to hear of the rocky relationship between MUNZand RMTU. In my opinion it was a great discussion.
I reckon most of the 170+women in attendance would agree the most engaging and exciting speaker of all was Jennifer Ward-Lealand, President of the actors’ union Equity NZ.
Most of the people who spoke up were brutally honest, and that’s the kind of conversation I love to be part of.
She has worked extensively in theatre, film, television, musical and radio for 40 years, and she is a trained intimacy co-ordinator for stage and screen.
I spoke about how we should all move on fromthe past, as we are all in interesting times with the company we work for.
President of Equity NZ, she has received a number of awards, most recently honoured as the Kiwibank New Zealander of the year 2020.
I went on to share the story of MUNZ’s almost four year fight for a better
The way she spoke both in Maori and English had us all captivated fromstart
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to finish. Her determination to change mindsets in her industry is evidenced by all her achievements, titles and accolades. She is truly the definition of a ‘Woman of Influence’; an award she has also received, for contributions to arts and culture. Dr Elizabeth Kerekere was the final keynote speaker, before we went into the youth component of the conference on day two. She has mentored over 50 youth leaders and is a fierce voice for young people. Alife-long grassroots activist, she has focused on Kaupapa Maori and Te Tiriti issues for 40 years. To add to her long profile, Elizabeth works on local and national projects across mental health, suicide, violence prevention and youth development, and has represented rainbow and indigenous human rights issues nationally and internationally.
Special thanks to my sidekick Annette McCauley for her assistance in organising our apparel, well done mate! We outdid ourselves again, and we were noticed and envied by all other unions. To all my wonderful comrades who made the choice to join me on this journey, it was great to meet you all. My mission since becoming a MUNZDelegate and attending this conference is to ensure more women and youth fromour union are invited, attend and have the opportunities that I have had. Lastly, thanks again to all of you for donating to the Lower Hutt Women’s Refuge, the ladies were super stoked and overwhelmed by our generosity and then further stoked with a cash donation fromthe Wellington Branch. This is what it means to RISEABOVE!
The rest of the day was fun filled, with craftivismwhere all tables were set up with different craft materials and activities. To end it all we had a group photo. I want to thank all those who organised this wonderful event, fromthe CTU Women’s Committee to all the workers who work at the venue.
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Happy Retirement George McIntosh Members, As most of us will now be aware, George McIntosh (AB/IR) has officially retired fromthe sea. His role as delegate and as an Executive member of the Wellington Branch will be missed, and his absence will certainly be noticed by us all in union activities, especially at a Branch level. George has been a proud and loyal member of the NZSeamen’s Union, Seafarers and finally MUNZsince 1977. All who sailed with George will agree he was a good shipmate and he has the utmost respect fromall who know him. As a union we wish George all the best for his retirement.
Rogues Galle r y
L-R: Howie, George, Kerensi, Sikupa, Edwnin, Graham Starkey,Johnny Mearns, Mafoa Palakua
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William Brockway, Kaiarahi
Wellington Branch Contacts Jimmy King - Branch Secretary/Treasurer DDI: 04 38 59288 Mobile: 020 483 6262 Email: jim.king@munz.org.nz
John Whiting - Branch Assistant Secretary Mobile: 021 606 379 Email: john.whiting@munz.org.nz
Mick Williams - Branch President Mobile: 022 309 8959 Email: mick.williams@munz.org.nz
Tony Mowbray - Vice President Mobile: 027 6376 561
Lynette Payne - Executive Member Mobile: 027 355 9080 Email: awaywiththeferries@hotmail.com Paul Baggott - Executive Member Mobile: 027 688 8002 Email: paulsown@hotmail.com
Ports (Wellington) Bradley Cliff ord - Executive Member Mobile: 021 176 5928 Email: bradleyclifford@msn.com Jason Penny - Executive Member Mobile: 021 537 287 Email: jaypndawhare@gmail.com
Fiona Mansell - Women’s Rep Executive Mobile: 022 302 3010 Email: feemansell@gmail.com
Jacob Blaikie - Youth Rep Executive Mobile: 022 658 3825 Email: blaikiejacob@gmail.com
National Office Officials Contacts Craig Harrison National Secretary Mobile: 027 422 5238 Direct dial: 04 801 7614 Email: craig.harrison@munz.org.nz Carl Findlay National President Mobile: 021 760 887 Email: carl.findlay@munz.org.nz
Josh Greer National Vice President Mobile: 027 348 2692 Email: local10munz@xtra.co.nz Ray Fife Assistant National Secretary Mobile: 027 447 5317 Email: ray.fife@munz.org.nz
This publication is authorised by the Maritime Union of New Zealand’s National Secretary Craig Harrison. 220 Willis Street, Wellington.
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