Last Kiwi crew on trans-Tasman vessel stage
Members of the Maritime Union are staging a protest today on board a vessel at the Ports of Auckland.
Maritime Union Auckland Seafarers Branch Secretary Garry Parsloe says the crew members started their protest on the trans-Tasman freighter Rotoiti at the Ports of Auckland Bledisloe Terminal at 7am this morning Saturday 4 November 2006.
He says the crew are drawing attention to the fact that when the Rotoiti is withdrawn from service on 26 November, it will be the end of the last New Zealand crewed ship working on the trans-Tasman trade.
"The vessel is going and the jobs are threatened yet the cargo remains, and these New Zealand seafarers want to have some work in their own trans-Tasman trade."
Mr Parsloe says it was not a redundancy situation as the work was still there, but would be going to other vessels – none of which have any New Zealand crew members.
He says the crew want jobs for New Zealand seafarers on the trans-Tasman trade and were staging their action to get dialogue with the employer.
The vessel is currently owned by international shipping line Hapag Lloyd but since 1999, crew have been under Anglo-Eastern ship management. Mr Parsloe says the situation is a shocking one, considering the importance of shipping to New Zealand as an economically and environmentally efficient transport mode.
"We are in a situation where New Zealand cargo is being carried, but there is no work for our own people." New Zealand seafarers had worked on the Rotoiti since 1975.
Mr Parsloe says that the national conference of the Maritime Union in October had committed to action on the issue. The Maritime Union had been in contact with overseas maritime unions for assistance with the matter.
The Maritime Union has challenged all shipping companies to recognize their social responsibility towards New Zealand crews, and is determined to maintain New Zealand seafarers on vessels that carry cargo on the trans-Tasman and international trade.
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Re: Last Kiwi crew on trans-Tasman vessel stage
an injury to one is an injury to all.
good on MUNZ standing up to this. As MUNZ well know the ongoing process of capitalist globalisation is resulting in boats more and more forcing down wages and looking to less developed nations where corporations can hire workers dirt cheap. good on MUNZ for fighting this and fighting for the rights of all workers regardless of nationality.
Re: Last Kiwi crew on trans-Tasman vessel stage
Cabotage Corruption
The first paragraph says that this is the last ship on the trans-Tasman with a "NZ" crew.
The last paragraph says the Maritime Union is determined to maintain NZ seafarers on vessels that carry cargo on the trans-Tasman.
Huh?!
Surely, if this is the last one, then there must have been many more previously.
Obviously this is an implicit admission by Mr Parsloe that the MUNZ's previous campaigns on this issue have come to naught.
The fact is that MUNZ (like many other western Seamen’s unions) is led by some people who seem to have lost touch with the new reality of life on the ocean wave.
If there ever was such a thing as a "NZ" seafarer, then there certainly isn't now. In fact, apart from the odd Tangata Whenua, the so called "NZ" seafarers were a motley bunch of Scots, Ozzy’s, English, Irish and Swedes and, etc.
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PERTINENT QUOTE (from Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of NZ)
“Runaway sailors were among the first Europeans to settle in New Zealand, and British merchant seamen continued to jump ship in large numbers until well after the Second World War. Most found work ashore but others returned to the coastal shipping trade; according to an Auckland union official, half of New Zealand’s coastal seamen in the early 20th century were deserters from British ships”.
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Worldwide the wavy industry is still peopled by sailors from the four-corners. Take a look in any local port, you will be lucky if any of the sailors you come across hail from these shores.
The difference now compared with previously, is that the western unions that represent these workers have seen fit to depend on ‘”friendly” governments to protect their members rights rather than industrial muscle and workers solidarity.
As a consequence they are feeble and ineffective. Who would ever imagine the MUNZ of today launching credible seafarers strike like that of 1890?
The MUNZ leadership should forget about that old crap line of trying to appeal to water-workers on the basis of some abstract patriotism. This serves the bosses more then the members. (the cynics might also observe that it serves the interests of lazy incumbent officials over those officials who want to get out and organise their members).
MUNZ members would be better off if their paid officials concentrated on coming up with campaigns that met the needs of this diverse group of seagoing-workers and organised this increasingly unorganised industry; around wages, conditions, safety and casualisation, regardless of Seamen’s nationality.
If every Maritime Union got its own port in order on these issues, there would be no need to be finger pointing at sailors from other lands.
Parsloe needs to think about uniting workers around our collective interests instead of effectively dividing us by championing only the interests of a self-interested few.
You’ve been in the job a long time Garry, maybe its also time to let some of the ratings have a gurnsey.
Davy Jones
Re: Re: Last Kiwi crew on trans-Tasman vessel stage
Maritime Union media release for immediate release Monday 9 October 2006
Maritime Union congratulates Government action on overseas fishing crews
The Maritime Union says the new rules to improve wages and conditions for overseas fishing crews announced today are good news for workers.
Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says the announcement means the industry will be brought into line with the rest of New Zealand business.
"Despite a co-ordinated campaign by special interests in the industry, the Government has made the right decision and the principled decision."
Mr Hanson says the move will lead to improvements in conditions for overseas crew, meaning less cases of abuse and shipjumping.
"Local workers will once again be able to afford to seek work in the fishing industry."
Mr Hanson says there is a lot of work that needs to be done but the groundwork is in place.
"The Maritime Union believes that this move is a positive one for the future of the New Zealand fishing industry and those who work in it."
Re: Re: Last Kiwi crew on trans-Tasman vessel stage
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