YOU ARE THE UNION

It is unfortunate to feel the need to send notices like this to vessels so delegates can raise it with the membership.

It would be appreciated if this could be printed off and discussed at a shipboard level to hopefully encourage Stopwork Meeting attendance.

Let’s not forget ‘You are the Union’.

The May SWM had the best numbers in a long time with approximately 35 in attendance. This was much appreciated, but at another recent meeting we only had five members plus the Sec., Asst. Sec and myself, making for a total of eight present at the meeting.

To put it into perspective, three out of the five were ‘on the beach’ with one even driving from Turangi. Another was retired and the fifth drove from the Wairarapa before joining the ship later that night.

With nearly 600 seafarers employed in the Cook Strait ferry companies alone it is a sad reflection that the Branch with the highest density of seafarers can’t get good turnouts.

This attitude keeps these figures at the level they are. Alarmingly we can’t even get a quorum on any voting issues. This means we can’t address, or assist with YOUR issues directly.

Most importantly members can’t be informed on what’s happening in their industry first hand.

As an executive we have changed the day (which will be reevaluated shortly), and even the meeting time to try and get the numbers up.

We have moved to a bi-monthly meeting (once every two months.)

Our Union has an ongoing Shipping campaign that needs every seafarer to participate in whatever way they can, including ‘pamphlet drops’ , lobbying local MPs along with attending any rallies that may develop to hopefully achieve what’s required in retaining some form of security in the industry.

This can all be pushed along by simply attending a SWM for two hours.

When things go wrong on the job, in disciplinary support or by realising what our CEA’s include, it’s always the Unions that are called upon when things go wrong.

Members now need to have a think in regard to participating in their Union business for us to remain effective.

There are wage rounds coming up so ALL should be aware of the workload involved.

If the Executive or negotiating team didn’t turn up for these meetings, I’m sure something would be said by the membership.