Phil Adams retirement

Life membership presentation, Maritime Union of New Zealand National Council, Wellington, 29 March 2021. From left, MUNZ National Secretary Craig Harrison, Phil Adams, MUNZ National Vice President Josh Greer, Barbara Adams.

A life on the waterfront: Phil Adams retires

Long serving maritime unionist Phil Adams was presented with his life membership of the Maritime Union at the March 2021 National Council meeting in Wellington. Phil was welcomed to the meeting along with his wife Barbara and was spoken of highly by officials and delegates from throughout New Zealand and given a standing ovation.

Phil said he had decided the time was right to retire from his full time job at Port Otago for family reasons. As well as serving as a national official, Phil is one of the longest serving branch officials of the Union.

Family connection

Phil’s family history is steeped in the maritime industry. His father Jimmy Adams and father in law Walter Meehan were both watersiders who went though the 1951 lockout. His grandfather Lofty Carrington, a seaman, served in World War One as part of an English crew and was injured. Older brothers Les had 47 years at sea, and Keith spent many years on the waterfront and at sea.

Phil began work as a fitter at the Union Company in the Port Chalmers dry dock in 1971. When it closed, local watersider Bruce Malcolm suggested he try the waterfront. There was an “intense selection process” which involved Union representatives, Waterfront Industry Commission (WIC), lawyers, shipping agents and others signing off on the new starts.

Phil started on the Port Chalmers waterfront in 1976 at a time when all waterfront workers were employed by the WIC, a “hiring hall” where workers were assigned to an employer. The WIC was managed by the Government in conjunction with the Union and employers. There were around 300 union members of the Waterfront Workers branch, in addition to Harbour Board workers and Talley Clerks who had their own unions.

Phil experienced all types of wharf work, hooking on, driving gear and as a hatchman. He put his name forward for the branch executive and “scraped in” in the elections. He served on the executive, as Vice President, then President, and as Secretary position from 1995 when previous President Bruce Malcolm retired.

Tough times

The Port went through tough times in the 1980s and 1990s. At one stage, numbers were down to 58 members. The community was hurt in the so-called Port Reform process in 1989. “That was the toughest time – there was ill feeling, a lot of mates lost jobs, and missed out.”

Despite the responsibility of serving as Branch Secretary, Phil stayed working under the hook. The Mainland dispute in the late 1990s and early 2000s was another time of heavy conflict, when the branch had to take action to defend local jobs. Mainland Stevedores never got established in Port Chalmers. Phil credits the result with strong support from the local community who realized what was at stake.

Despite these challenges, Phil says the Union tried to approach things from a positive angle and he is pleased Port Otago has had no redundancies since 1997.

He says the main goal of the branch was to focus on secure full time jobs and resist casualization. One outcome was the cadetship scheme which provides a career path for young people entering the industry.

Branch numbers have now bounced back with around 230 members at the Port. The Union has maintained eight hour shifts at the Port, and has still held on to its annual Picnic Day.

National leadership

Phil also served as a national official of the Maritime Union in the years immediately after its formation. The initial period saw Les Wells (WWU) and Dave Morgan (NZSU) serve as joint National Presidents. Phil was then elected as National President for several years, before standing down to focus on his Branch Secretary role – all the time working a full time job.

Phil served for 43 years as a branch official at Port Chalmers, including from 1978–1995 on the executive and from 1995–2021 as Branch Secretary. He is quick to acknowledge his debt to past officials of the branch who helped him and credits them with much of the success of the branch. Bruce Malcolm was a big influence and a few of the many names he mentions include John Davis, Ken Wilson, Davy Hanna, Noel Currie, Charlie Crawford, Davey Dick, Ian Quarrell, Clive Giles and Ray Sinclair.

Phil also credits his wife Barbara for her support. He says it was vital to have an understanding partner as some of the issues he faced were brought home.

One of the big satisfactions about his work for the Union is to have young members come up and let him know they’ve bought a house, as well as the superannuation scheme and medical scheme.

“This union looks after its members in the hard times, in times of sickness or death, we help out.”

Over the years Phil has travelled widely and says he appreciated the opportunity to represent MUNZ overseas. Phil is now retired and enjoying a new holiday home at Lawrence, and looking forward to spending more time with family including his five grandchildren.