National Secretary Report

CRAIG HARRISON NATIONAL SECRETARY

National Report

MUNZ National Secretary Craig Harrison

Our Unions National Council meeting was held in Wellington on 12–13 July, with our Unions Finance Committee meeting on 11 July. I would like to acknowledge the hard work done by the Finance Committee with Ray Fife, Jim King, Gary Horan and Josh Greer all contributing to the debate and formulating resolutions for the National Council meeting that underpin the direction of our Union. This committee forms an important part of our organisation as it helps set the future of our Union by formulating resolutions to take to the National Council meeting to debate and endorse. Coastal Shipping I am pleased to report the Multi Union Collective Agreement between our Union, AMEA and the Merchant Services Guild, and Atlas for the two new Maersk vessels on our coast has been signed. I would like to congratulate Jimmy King and Russell Mayn who drove the talks on our members behalf and ensured the terms and conditions in the Agreement are in line with what our members currently enjoy on the only other container vessel we currently crew on the coast.

The recent announcement by Swires in which we will see another Pacifica vessel added to our domestic container fleet later this year has been some of the best news we have heard in years. There are potential other opportunities with recent developments with new inter-island and trans-Tasman services that we will be following up. We have recently seen a new operator in Move Logistics indicating it has plans for a coastal container vessel that will also start to move trans-Tasman freight.

This good news is tempered with the loss of both of our New Zealand flagged tankers and the long history of service our members have given to the industry over the years without incident. However I am confident that we will be able to find productive work for our members who have been displaced from these vessels to the new tonnage on the coast.

The ongoing global disruption to logistics and our supply chain means that New Zealand shipping will play an increasingly important role in the future, and it also stresses the need for a National Port Strategy. Training The reality is our Union and the industry has challenges with an ageing seafaring workforce and little in the way of education and investment in young New Zealanders into the industry. Years of neglect means seafaring has not been an attractive option for young people to consider as a career. The Union is campaigning for support from the Government and all industry players to educate young New Zealanders and provide a pathway into the industry. For example with the amount of work in the Oil and Gas with the offshore decommissioning paid for by the New Zealand Government there was little in the way of training opportunities for young New Zealanders. I hope to have further news in the near future as we continue on with the campaign. Ports Through the work done by both National Office and the Auckland Branch our Union has seen some significant rulings come out of the Employment Court. Our Union supported our members who work for ISO in Tauranga (a company now owned by Qube in Australia.) This was through a long and protracted legal argument around Agreed Hours, Guaranteed Hours and Available Hours.

The ruling from the court will change the nature of work for all Port workers as we start to renegotiate the Collective Agreements around the country. As we start to explain what the ruling means to our members and the various employers it will change the language around all employment agreements in relation to the allocation of labour.

This is on the back of the work done to roll back automation in the Ports of Auckland and the drive for national standards in stevedoring which our Union has been campaigning on for years. Unfortunately it was the recent deaths in the industry that prompted the Government to act. The Transport Minister Michael Wood instructed both WorkSafe and Maritime New Zealand to carry out numerous port inspections and then report back the findings. While this is going on, the Minister has directed the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) to investigate the recent death on the Auckland Waterfront and also the death on the Lyttelton Waterfront. Unlike WorkSafe and Maritime New Zealand, TAIC has wide ranging powers to compel companies and organisations to provide information.

Our Union has been involved with Maritime New Zealand and the wider industry around Fatigue in the port industry. Through consultation, later this year there will be a robust guide for the industry on what a good fatigue management system would look like based on science. The days are coming to an end when an unscrupulous employer can require workers to work 60 hours over seven days with all the known health hazards and risks it brings into the workplace.

Our Union is in the process of bargaining a Collective Agreement with ISO in Tauranga led by Russell Mayn and myself. We are finally starting to deal with a company that has long impacted on the working conditions of all Port workers. ISO has fought every inch in this process to try and find a way to not have a Collective Agreement with our Union. In our industry in the bulk and general operations, ISO would be one of the biggest employers.

We are also in the process of talking with ISL in Tauranga and Northland. This company operates in the bulk in general port operations in North Port and numerous other North Island ports and has staff contracted to work inside the Container Terminal at Sulphur Point.

Over the coming year there will be a lot of work done in and around the Ports to lift our Unions density in our industry. The formula is easy. If you have good Union density and workers are organised and educated, then most often than not we see good outcomes for our members with good employment agreements and safe workplaces.

This is hard work and takes hundreds of conversations with workers who have no experience of what a Union is, as they are usually educated by the employer. But as we all know a good organised workplace with trained and supported delegates is what all employers try hard to stop. Union Strategy Over coming months and into the New Year, our Union needs to start having the conversations around the various Branches about building our collective strength.

We are already seeing branches like Whangarei amalgamate with Auckland, and the result with a part-time organiser is we are seeing significant growth of members in the port, as we got down to around three members and we now have over thirty.

Port of Tauranga

“...A GOOD ORGANISED WORKPLACE WITH TRAINED AND SUPPORTED DELEGATES IS WHAT ALL EMPLOYERS TRY HARD TO STOP”

The picture is the same in some of our ports that need the support and the resources to grow. For some ports it could be amalgamations that bring Branches together to better utilise the resources so we have the ability to communicate with workers in all the ports.

As we see new technology come into the industry more and more, we will have to think what our Union looks like locally and nationally so we can ensure that we are doing our best for all our members future. This could mean that we start to look at port roles that in the past we didn’t focus on having coverage in our Collective Agreements New membership I can finish on a positive note saying that we are seeing growth in our membership around the country, with reports like the one Fiona Mansell of Wellington Branch delivered to National Council about new members being recruited in and around the Port of Wellington. I am also pleased to report that in Auckland in particular POAL we have seen our density restored to a level prior to the strikes and lock outs.

I have to commend our longstanding members who stayed strong over the last ten years and the delegates that never gave up the fight to once again put our Union at the forefront of the employment relationship. I would also like to congratulate the new workers at the Ports of Auckland who are joining our Union and will ensure our future in the Port Company. We are seeing similar reports from Lyttelton and the great work being done by Gary and delegates, and we now need to find a way to extend it to all ports. International We are seeing ongoing volatility in the global transport sector as the effects of COVID and war in Ukraine play out. Delays, disruption and extreme cost increases are the new norm. The free market globalization model pushed by global capital over the last generation is finished, and CEOs and business analysts openly admit we are moving into a new era where resilience and security are the new priorities. The industry as a whole has been stripped to a bare necessity model that has relied on cheap casual labour and the reliance on workers in the Port industry regularly working significant hours. As we have all witnessed the system has failed.

We are now in a strange situation in New Zealand with major economic issues resulting from our rapidly changing world including high inflation, but at the same time labour shortages are creating opportunities to negotiate better wages and conditions. The continued calls for migrant labour as if it will fix all our woes is part of the reason our country is in this state. There has been little investment from an industry that over the previous decades has seen significant returns taken out as profit.

At our National Council in July this year, our Union voted to affiliate with the International Dockworkers Council. This builds on and helps to strength our position as we now start to deal with more and more international operators coming to our industry. Global links as in the past and going into the future will be as important as ever and our Union needs to continue to look at ways to build workers capital.

We are seeing major negotiations for the ILWU in the USA and strike action in the UK from dockers fighting for wages that try to keep up with the massive hike in living costs. This is on the back of shipping companies taking record profits out of the industry while the majority of the world suffers, this profiteering can only be described as obscene and immoral. Our Union will be offering our support to our fellow workers in their struggles as they did in our struggles at the Ports of Auckland and the Port of Napier.

In closing I would like to thank all the officials and delegates that give their commitment to our Union, also the staff in the office for their effort and most importantly our members who choose to be part of our Union and help build our collective strength.

“IN AUCKLAND WE HAVE SEEN OUR DENSITY RESTORED TO A LEVEL PRIOR TO THE STRIKES AND LOCK OUTS”