The Maritimes Winter 2015

Issue 50 • Winter 2015

Maritimes Magazine of the Maritime Union of New Zealand

ISSN 1176-3418

OUR UNION, OUR FUTURE www.munz.org.nz

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 1

National Council A busy national council meeting was held on 27 and 28 May 2015 at the national offices of the Union at Waterside House in Wellington.

All branches were represented at the Council, with observers including Wellington Branch and National Women’s Representative Marian Lesslie and Veterans delegate Eric Dunne. The MUA was represented

by Assistant National Secretary, Warren Smith, who is a good friend of our Union. Warren gave an informative update on international developments.

The meeting was addressed by the leader of the Labour Party Andrew Little, who attended with industrial relations spokesperson Iain Lees Galloway.

Health and safety

The National Secretary Reports

By Joe Fleetwood

New national officials elected Following the retirement of National President Garry Parsloe, National Vice President Carl Findlay has been appointed National President as per the union rules.

This was unanimously endorsed by the National Council at our May meeting.

A further election was held at the National Council to fill the then vacant position of National Vice President. This process was advised to all branches in a letter on 25 March 2015.

Tauranga Mount Maunganui Branch Secretary Selwyn Russell was nominated and elected unopposed. Congratulations to both Carl and Selwyn.

We now have stability and the hard work continues.

National elections for all four national official positions will be opened next year prior to the MUNZ 2016 National Conference.

The National Council passed a resolution thanking Gary Parsloe for his contribution to the trade union movement over many years.

National Council notes this is the last Council for long serving Napier Secretary Bill Connelly whose many years of service to the Union, including the national Finance Committee, were recognized by a standing ovation and vote of thanks from the National Council.

In addition, due to the retirement of Garry Parsloe, Barry Millington has replaced him on the Seafarers’ Retirement Fund.

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Health and safety continues to be a major issue in the maritime industry. A number of court cases brought against New Zealand’s largest port companies following accidents have resulted in substantial fines.

However, this does not bring back the victims of workplace accidents or heal their injuries.

All branches are urged to report incidents using the online form on our website. Members are welcome to fill in this form too and send in a short report on any workplace health and safety issue, whether large or small. Information is kept confidential.

I have also written to the Director of Maritime New Zealand calling for a review of the code of practice for Health and Safety in Port Operations.

Bad working practices have been creeping in on the waterfront and this was last reviewed in 2004. We need enforceable industry rules and regulations.

Maritime International Federation The Maritime International Federation was announced publicly at the ITF Fair Practices Committee meeting in Perth Australia, in May 2015.

The founding Unions have engaged the services of Mick Doleman, former Deputy National Secretary of the MUA, as the initial Co-ordinator of the MIF. I was elected as International President of the MIF and Paddy Crumlin was elected as International Secretary. The founding unions of the MIF are the Maritime Union of New Zealand, Maritime Union of Australia, Papua New Guinea Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union, and Timor Leste’s SMETL. Leaders from the newly formed Independent Federation of Myanmar Seafarers (IFOMS), and from the long established Indonesian seafarers’ union the KPI were also in attendance.

The MIF has great potential to get our unions working more closely in the Pacific region especially on the big organizing projects to build union density and numbers.

While on the international scene, it has been great to see our brothers and sisters from the ILWU on the West Coast of North America win a lengthy battle with the employers, and take a Union agreement to ratification and get it over the line by 85%.

Congratulations as well to the MUA, with their High Court ruling in favour of unions retaining Australian jobs and qualifications in their domestic oil and gas industry.

www.munz.org.nz

In this issue

ILWU International Convention

It was an honour to attend the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) international convention in June 2015, along with National Secretary’s Report page 2 Assistant National Secretary Ray Fife.

National President’s Report page 4 The Convention came hot on the heels of ILWU longshore members voting overwhelmingly (82% News page 5 in favour) to ratify a contract agreement with the National Council May 2015 page 8 employers (Pacific Maritime Association).

All four international officers of the ILWU were Union Youth page 10 returned unopposed, a credit to the leadership of Obituary: Peter Conway page 11 “Big Bob” McEllrath in recent testing times for this West Australia Conference page 12 great Union. Thanks also to Local 142 President Donna Domingo and the officials and rank and file of Health and safety update page 16 this Hawaii Local that hosted us all.

MUA West Australia Conference page 22 The strong connection between our two unions has been underlined in recent years with mutual support Wealth by Stealth page 26 MARITIME UNION BADGES and solidarity in our struggles to maintain secure Story of the Echo page 28 NICKEL PLATED WITH jobs and conditions on both sides of the Pacific.

3 ENAMEL INFILLS AND RESIN

Branch contacts page 23

The Maritimes Magazine Published quarterly by the Maritime Union of New Zealand. Authorized by Joe Fleetwood, 220 Willis Street, Wellington.

ISSN 1176-3418

Editor: Victor Billot Mobile: 021 482219 Email: victor.billot@munz.org.nz Mail: PO Box 27004, Wellington 6141, New Zealand

Contact the Maritime Union 26mm

National Office Telephone: 04 3850 792 Fax: 04 3848 766 Address: PO Box 27004, Wellington 6141 Office administrator: Ramesh Pathmanathan Email: ramesh@munz.org.nz National Secretary: Joe Fleetwood Direct dial: 04 8017614 Email: joe.fleetwood@munz.org.nz

Mobile: 021 364649

National President: Carl Findlay Direct dial: 09 3034652 Email: carl.findlay@munz.org.nz

Mobile: 021 760887

Assistant General Secretary: Ray Fife ELECTROPLATING: NICKEL dial: 03 2128189

Mobile: 0274 475317 Email: ray.fife@munz.org.nz

Deadline for Spring 2015 edition: 1 September 2015 Maritime Union online Website www.munz.org.nz Facebook www.facebook.com/maritime.union Twitter www.twitter.com/maritimeunion Flickr www.flickr.com/maritimeunion YouTube www.youtube.com/maritimeunionnz

) AND CLUTCH Direct

FORE GIVING APPROVAL TO PROCEED TO PRODUCTION

National Vice President: Selwyn Russell Direct dial: (07) 5755 668 Mobile: 0274 782308 Email: selwyn.russell@munz.org.nz ITF Inspector: Grahame McLaren Direct dial: 04 8017613 Email: mclaren_grahame@itf.org.uk

Mobile: 021 2921782

Communications Officer: Victor Billot Mobile: 021 482219 Email: victor.billot@munz.org.nz www.munz.org.nz

RESIN

The Maritime Union of New Zealand is affiliated to the International Transport Workers’ Federation www.itfglobal.org PROCESS BLUE BLUE 280 RED 1797 BLACK Front cover photo Top photo: cabin crew on board the Interislander ferry Kaitaki. Left to right – Samantha Lane, Sarah Harvey and Georgia Robinson.

Bottom photo: On the Silver Fern shipping oil tanker Torea at Timaru. Left to right – deck trainees Nick Gregory, Vince Honan, Saan Howard, cadets Jack Gregory, Elliot Lowe.

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Report from the National President

In the end my heart really goes out to the 88 casualties forced out, and the loss of their livelihood due to automation and an aggressive employer.

In my 14 years at the Ports of Auckland no member has been forced to go and it’s certainly something I do not wish to see in the rest of my time down here.

Craig and I were very thankful to be invited and attend this event on behalf of the MUNZ family.

It goes without saying the Sydney branch (and others) pulled out all the stops to support Local 13 in its dispute with Ports of Auckland and this will never be forgotten.

Whether we like it or not, automation in some way, shape or form is around the corner for us Kiwis.

Top candidates for port automation are Auckland, Tauranga and possibly Lyttelton, and in fact Ports of Auckland have informed officials they are investigating automation. The struggle continues and “Automation with Negotiation” is our view so watch this space.

Finally, since the recent retirement of Garry Parsloe I have received the National Council’s endorsement as new National President until the next conference in 2016. As I said at the time it’s not something I’m taking lightly or for granted. It’s a huge honour and I’m very aware of my responsibility to the past and present membership. Proud to be union.

By Carl Findlay 0311 It’s been fifteen weeks since the Local 13 terminal collective at Ports of Auckland came into effect on Monday 16 February 2015.

After three years and five months of struggle with Ports of Auckland, we finally got there. To say the feeling at the terminal is still raw at this stage would be an understatement. Having said that, all members who stood loyal to the conclusion of the dispute won the choice to stay or go as voluntary severance was part of the final settlement package.

Having that choice should not to be taken for granted.

We need to remember that forced redundancy is almost as bad as then Board Chairman Richard Pearson sacking us all in 2012.

Local 13 Assistant Secretary and MUNZ trainer Craig Harrison and I attended the Maritime Union of Australia’s Sydney branch Picnic Day on Sunday 29 March to mark the firing up of the Patricks automated terminal in Sydney.

The cost of firing up of that automated terminal was the loss of approximately 170 highly paid and skilled jobs and, if that is not bad enough, 88 of those jobs were forced redundancies.

The theme of the Picnic day was international solidarity and family. The branch wanted to show their employers no matter how tough things got they would never surrender. The day certainly did that, but I must say it felt strange at times as you would talk to a guy who picked up a job and then talking to the next guy who missing out.

Some guys just volunteered as 170 had to go and because of the hatred for Patricks they decided they had enough. Others were forced because they did not score high enough on the supervisors points chart.

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50th edition of the Maritimes magazine

By Victor Billot Communications Officer The Winter 2015 edition of the Maritimes is the 50th edition of the magazine, something of a landmark for the publication.

The magazine has been published quarterly since February 2003, shortly after the amalgamation of the Watersiders and Seafarers into the new Maritime Union of New Zealand.

It started out as modest 16 pages and has now settled into a standard 32 page, full colour format.

When it first came out, websites were still a new concept for unions and Facebook didn’t exist.

However, despite the Union adopting these new communication technologies, the Maritimes magazine is still the flagship for Union news and views, posted directly to members throughout New Zealand.

Copies are also circulated to the global union movement, MPs and political organizations, Government agencies, academic researchers and libraries.

All back issues are available for viewing and download on the internet at http://issuu.com/maritimeunion

www.munz.org.nz

Perth protest rally targets Chevron’s New Zealand operation A large and noisy rally targeting offshore hydrocarbon corporation Chevron has taken place outside the New Zealand consulate in Perth on the morning of Tuesday 12 May 2015.

The protest was called by the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to alert the New Zealand public to the poor practices of Chevron, that have led to major disputes in the Australian offshore oil and gas industry and around the world.

Chevron is a new entrant into the New Zealand oil and gas industry and it was recently awarded three offshore exploration permits in the Pegasus Basin, in partnership with StatOil. Chevron is the operator.

Chevron is the operator of Australia’s largest LNG (liquified natural gas) project Gorgon, on the remote northern coast of Western Australia.

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Chevron has disappointed local communities by failing to meet commitments for local jobs and to local businesses, poor safety and other conditions for workers, massive cost overruns and project mismanagement in its construction phase.

A letter was presented to the Consulate for the New Zealand Government detailing workers concerns at the way Chevron operates.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the presence of Chevron is not welcomed by New Zealand maritime workers.

“Our members work in this industry, we support responsible drilling with high safety standards, but we do not support companies that have a bad environmental record and anti-worker agenda entering our industry.”

Mr Fleetwood says the natural resources of New Zealand must be used to the benefit of New Zealand workers and the people of New Zealand, not simply to boost profits for multinational operators.

ITF President Paddy Crumlin says Chevron has a record of anti-worker activities and other bad practices in their global operations.

“We are alerting the New Zealand public that this operator has a very dubious record and Australian workers have experienced that first hand.”

The rally was the first step in the New Zealand link in what has become a global campaign to demand Chevron respect the communities they operate in.

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Maritime International Federation about to launch The Maritime International Federation has continued to take shape and an official launch is planned in the near future.

At a meeting held to coincide with the May 2015 International Transport Workers’ Federation Fair Practices Committee in Perth, MUA Deputy National Secretary Mick Doleman described the idea behind the formation of the federation, which currently consists of the Papua New Guinea Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union, Maritime Union of New Zealand and the Maritime Union of Australia.

Doleman discussed how the MIF would fit with the wider ITF and how the rules would limit and enable the member unions.

“The Asia-Pacific region has a long history of solidarity and cooperation and we would like to expand that cooperation into a more formal structure,” he said.

“The ability to work closely with our neighbours to empower working men and women is mutually beneficial for the members in terms of building capacity. He made particular mention of the Pacific.

“There are good unionists in places like Fiji and Vanuatu but they lack organisation because of external pressures such as military coups and a string of natural disasters,” Doleman said.

“By joining MIF they’re able to grow by sharing in our knowledge and resources and by being able to utilise our leverage.”

“This has been exhibited in Papua New Guinea, where union density and member numbers are rapidly increasing to levels never previously encountered.”

In addition to the founding members, other unions such as Myanmar’s IFOMS, Indonesia’s KPI and East Timor’s SMETL have also expressed an interest in joining.

The Maritime International Federation was also discussed at the MUNZ May 2015 National Council.

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No to privatisation of Port of Lyttelton The Maritime Union has repeated its warnings that the Christchurch City Council should not privatise key assets including the Port of Lyttelton.

Port privatization would have negative outcomes for the City, says MUNZ Lyttelton Branch Secretary Les Wells.

The ratepayers and citizens of Christchurch should continue to organise against the asset sales programme, he says.

The Maritime Union took a leading role in the campaign against the part privatization of the Port of Lyttelton in 2006.

In the 2006 case the port deal was being promoted by a right wing Mayor and council, but in the current situation the Union was concerned the sell off was being promoted by the current Mayor, a former Labour MP. Privatisation of ports internationally has often led to poor outcomes, loss of control and loss of income for communities.

The Port is the major asset for the City of Christchurch, says Mr Wells.

“Workers will not let their assets built by generations of labour be pawned off for short-sighted gains.”

Mr Wells says the Union was firmly opposed to asset sales and would campaign against both local and national politicians who were pushing privatization.

Veteran members To continue to receive the Maritimes magazine once you have retired from the industry, please join the MUNZ Veterans’ Association.

Contact Veterans Secretary Terry Ryan at PO Box 2645, Auckland, or email terry@munz.org.nz

www.munz.org.nz

How Unite Union’s fast-food members ended ‘Zero Hours Contracts’

By Jared Phillips There has been a lot of talk in the media recently about "zero hours contracts". "Zero hours contracts" are employment agreements which allow the employer to hire workers on permanent contracts which at the same time do not provide any guaranteed hours of work from week to week.

Over the last few months Unite Union has achieved significant victories removing zero hours contracts in the fast food industry. In this year's collective bargaining rounds KFC, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and McDonald's have now all agreed to clauses that put an end to zero hours contracts at those firms.

This will deliver secure work and improve the lives of thousands of workers.

By the early 2000s these 'flexible' contracts had become dominant in large parts of the service sector industry. This was a result of de-unionisation of parts of the service industry throughout the 1990s after the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act. In the mid-2000s, Unite began reorganising the fastfood industry and cinemas in an attempt to win back important working conditions and real wages that had been lost through de-unionisation.

The organising campaigns were successful on minimum wage changes, training and service-based pay gains, permanently removing youth rates on unionised sites, and so forth. With regard to hours of work though, it was very difficult to get these employers to agree to guaranteed hours of work. www.munz.org.nz

As part of the programme of right-wing changes over the past few decades, many employers – especially those in a de-unionised environment – got used to thinking it was their right to determine which staff members got work and when they work.

So initially in 2006 Unite members got some minor gains such as 'secure hours' clauses which meant that the employer was supposed to offer hours of work to existing employees before new employees were hired.

This still didn't give guaranteed hours though and was usually only effective where and when the union was strong enough on site to get leverage off the clause. At that time, Unite Union also negotiated the return of 3-hour minimum shifts.

Over the next few years there were some further limited gains. For example at one company, union members who had three years’ continuous service and full time availability were guaranteed 30 hours per week. This was useful for longer term workers and curbed the heart-breaking situation where even longer term staff didn't have guaranteed hours.

But it still didn't resolve the industry-wide problem.

Unite had been planning to use this year's bargaining round to prioritise guaranteed hours of work.

The campaign inside and outside the workplaces attracted major public support and positive coverage in the mainstream media. As a result, the major fast-food employers agreed to Unite's claims. This result was a culmination of a decade of organising, agitating, and negotiations.

(This article is reproduced with the permission of The New Zealand Dairy Workers’ Union Te Runanga Wai U) The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 7

May 2015 MUNZ National Council Wellington, New Zealand The National Council of the Maritime Union of New Zealand met in Wellington on 27 and 28 May 2015.

Following the opening of the meeting, an election of officers was held, due to the recent retirement of National President Garry Parsloe.

Acting National President Carl Findlay was confirmed in the role of National President, as per the rules of the Union.

To fill the resulting vacancy, Selwyn Russell was elected unopposed as National Vice President.

All national official positions will go to a national vote in 2016.

National Secretary Joe Fleetwood gave a national strategy report, focussing on the main areas of activity for the Union: Health & safety, Growth, Bargaining, Financial, Organizing, National database, International, and Political.

Guest speakers Labour Party leader Andrew Little was welcomed to the meeting, and gave a short speech and presentation on the direction the Labour Party was taking to return to Government, before answering questions from the council. He was accompanied by labour relations spokeperson and Manawatu MP Iain Lees Galloway who spoke on Labour’s support for workers.

The international guest at the meeting was Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, Warren Smith.

Warren gave a report on developments in Australia and the various campaigns that were underway including Chevron. Along with Joe Fleetwood, he spoke on the progress of the Maritime International Federation which would soon be legally constituted, and up and running.

Sector reports

The afternoon featured reports from the four sectors, Terminals/inland ports, Bulk and general stevedoring, Coastal shipping, and Offshore oil and gas industry.

A special report on automation was provided.

New technologies are having a major impact throughout the transport and logistics chain. Around the world, ports are moving to automated technology and this is having a major impact on jobs.

Automated and robot technology is also increasingly being used in other transportation modes, warehousing and manufacturing.

A full report on this topic will be made in the next edition of the Maritimes.

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Day two

Reports were received on the Trades Hall proposed sale, the NZ Maritime Forum, and a honours board for members who had died on the job.

The Seafarers Scholarships could not be extended to all members of the union and their families as some branches had shown no interest in supporting it.

NZEI general manager Andrew Casidy gave a presentation on membership systems, outlining ways to modernise our processes and methods, including the advantages and disadvantages of direct payment of union fees. Branch reports were tabled.

Women’s report National womens representative Marian Lesslie gave a presentation on a project she has embarked on to set up a Womens and Youth Committee on the Cook Strait ferries. The concept is to engage these members more in active unionism. This came out of a union leadership course she recently attended.

The idea of the women and youth committee being extended onto the waterfront and set up in other ports was also promoted. A special training session for women members at the Ports of Auckland was also proposed and is being planned.

Health and safety

The health and safety report noted a number of legal proceedings following the injury and death of union members on the job, including CentrePort and Ports of Auckland being found guilty in two cases, and the Lyttelton Port Company being charged in the Brad Fletcher case (they later pleaded guilty.)

Maritime NZ had released incident data to the the media following an Official Information Act request.

Together with information released last year by WorkSafe, this means we are able to add any nonrecorded incidents to our national MUNZ health and safety database.

The Maritime Union had renewed calls for a national inquiry into port safety.

The Union had also been engaged with making submissions on the new Health and Safety Reform Bill, and a new document about alcohol and drug impairment from the Ministry of Transport entitled “Clear Heads.” The Union noted that the issue of fatigue had not been addressed by this document.

A written report on union education was received from MUNZ trainer and newly elected Auckland Branch Assistant Secretary Craig Harrison. Craig discussed the successful course that had been run at the Wellington branch earlier this year, and encouraged other branches to book in courses for their members.

www.munz.org.nz

At the May 2015 National Council meeting, from left, MUA Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith, guest speaker Andrew Little MP, leader of the Labour Party, MUNZ National Secretary Joe Fleetwood, MUNZ Assistant National Secretary Ray Fife and MUNZ National President Carl Findlay

Campaigns

The political and industrial report noted the 2014 election had been a defeat for Labour and other parties of the left and the discussion on how to improve this was now taking place.

The National Government had the ability to continue with agenda but was coming under increasing pressure. The loss of Northland electorate in a by election shows the Government is vulnerable.

MUNZ is affiliated to the Labour Party and had engagement with policy process, candidate and leadership selection. In addition, the Union would maintain relationships with other left leaning parties to assist in formation of pro-worker Government.

As a union, we also support political/industrial campaigns including TPPA and zero hour contracts.

The union had to ensure our own voice by developing and advocating for a political programme, and setting the political agenda.

The low voting turnout was a major factor in poor results for pro-worker policies. Once again nearly one million New Zealanders did not vote.

Local Government elections would be held in 2016.

Many ports are owned by local Government so it is essential to support, lobby and elect pro-working class candidates in 2016 local body elections.

The major political and industrial issues faced by the Union included employment law changes, the TPPA – free trade deal, the successful campaign against Zero

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Hours contracts and the new Chevron campaign that the Union had engaged in.

Wellington Assistant Secretary John Whiting advised National Council that Wellington would be hosting the 2016 Interport sports tournament and gave a report.

Reports were also received from New Zealand ITF inspector Grahame MacLaren, who was currently off work after an injury, and a communications report from Communications Officer Victor Billot.

Veterans representative Eric Dunne gave a report to the meeting and noted several veterans who had recently passed on.

Retirement of Bill Connelly

The National Secretary announced that this was the last National Council meeting for long serving Napier Secretary Bill Connelly. Bill was given a standing ovation for his many years of loyal service to the Union, especially with the Finance Committee, and several speakers from the floor spoke on this and wished him the best for his retirement.

The final session was a report on the maritime superannuation funds by David Young. He noted the current research that was being done on considering the option of bringing together several maritime industry super funds which could improve returns for members.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 9

Union youth are the leaders of tomorrow

By Byron Cumming Local 13 This article is aimed at the younger MUNZ members, who might need a better understanding on how a union works.

Everyone in the union is the same – from a member on his first day in the union, through to the member who has been in the union for 30 years. We can all contribute.

The young union member has equal rights in the union. We need union youth to keep the union movement alive for the future.

I would hope every member can and will do their part to ensure MUNZ is around for a very long time.

If we want to keep good wages and conditions of work, the only way to do this is to be active in your Union and support your Union.

The first way to do this is to turn up and attend your stopwork meeting.

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If you don’t go to your stopwork meeting, how can you know what is going on in the union?

The next important thing to do is go along to union events – the May day march, pickets, rallies and other events.

The more members we have at events, the better it is – a hundred people look better than five people.

A strong union with active members can make a difference.

Be aware and keep updated about labour laws.

You can do this by watching the news, reading newspapers, checking out the union magazine/ website and social networks like Facebook, and going to the Government websites on labour legislation (www.dol.govt.nz) If people sit back and do nothing – and are not aware of their rights or what they might lose – the Government of the day will say we have the mandate to do whatever they like and say the people of New Zealand don’t care.

One of the most important things about being in a union is having a “voice.”

So if there is a issue that is concerning you, and that you think union members need to know about when you are at the stopwork meeting, then raise the issue.

The time to do this at a meeting is when general business or new business is discussed, and the person in charge of the meeting (usually called the Chairperson or President) asks for any new items.

All you need to do is raise your hand and when you are asked to speak, you can talk about what is on your mind.

You may feel nervous at first talking in front of a group of people, but just remember most people in the room are like minded union members and are happy to hear you putting forward an issue of concern to the Union.

Doing these basic things will make

you an asset to your union.

But if you feel you want to do more there are plenty of opportunities.

Becoming a workplace delegate can be a hard job but it is also a rewarding job.

I have been a workplace delegate for a few years now, I wasn’t really trained to do the job but I have done my best to pick it up. Every day I am learning something. You gain new skills, confidence and knowledge.

A workplace delegate is there to represent the union in the workplace. You assist other union members if they have an issue or problem, and work with the union officials to make sure everything is going well.

It is an honorary job – you are elected by the other union members.

When I do this job I always try to remember that I am representing the whole Union and for all MUNZ members in the workplace.

MUNZ runs a delegates training course which I went along to a couple of years ago. All MUNZ members should consider attending too, it is a good start to get you more informed about our union.

About two years ago I became the national Youth Delegate for MUNZ. I was the first Youth Delegate for this union and it is the same as when I became a workplace delegate, I have been working and learning by getting involved and going to Auckland executive meetings.

I hope that another young union member reads this and wants to put their hand up to get involved – and maybe that member will be a leader of the union tomorrow.

If anyone has any questions they can email me at: bigbyron84@hotmail.com

www.munz.org.nz

Peter Conway speaks to workers on a MUNZ picket line at Centreport, Wellington, in 2012

Peter Conway Peter Conway, former Secretary of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, died on 9 June 2015, after battling a depressive illness for more than 12 months.

A statement from his family said that Peter fought hard in a daily struggle to stay with the family he loved.

“He carried this terrible illness with the same dignity and kindness that he lived his life, but ultimately it took him.”

Peter committed his whole working life to improving the lives of working people, both in unions and, more recently, as the Economist and Secretary of the Council of Trade Unions. He was previously Chair of Oxfam New Zealand and was on the Board of NZ Trade and Enterprise.

The Council of Trade Unions said he had advocated strongly and often singularly that when the economy did not work for working people – that was because of policy choices – and these policies could and should be changed.

“Peter was able to simplify these messages so workers could engage in this debate and contribute their own views. www.munz.org.nz

He proposed real alternative practical policies that did incorporate the needs of workers. Unions are about jobs and Peter strongly advocated that our industries and sectors needed a plan to help them grow, and that the expertise and skills of workers needed to be at the centre of this. He was widely read and was a sought after contributor to many forums.

Peter was also a skilled union leader and was involved in all of the most difficult industrial disputes during his time as Secretary.”

Maritime Union National Secretary Joe Fleetwood said Peter Conway was a good friend to maritime workers.

Peter had worked closely with the Union on a number of disputes and his commitment was second to none.

“New Zealand workers have lost a good friend but his legacy and contribution will be remembered.”

He is survived by his partner Liz, and children Maddy, Sean and Rosa.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 11

MUNZ attends West Australia Conference: Rank and file report

By Marian Lesslie National Women’s Representative I had the pleasure of attending the Western Australia state conference of the Maritime Union of Australia in February 2015.

I was invited to the MUA National women’s committee meeting on the 21 May but due to travelling was unable to attend. However I was also able to attend and take part in the training day for the MUA women’s committee on Sunday 22 May. This was a really great day and I really enjoyed myself. The day started with what they had talked about the day before. It also went through what a committee needs to do to be able to work together – planning and strategy, skills, disciplines, roles and responsibilities.

Much of the rest of the day was spent on learning about public speaking: the ways people speak in public. We each had to prepare and give a five minute speech. This was a very useful thing to do.

I gave my speech on the changes to the employment laws that are happening in New Zealand.

This was the first that many Australian workers had heard about what was going on in New Zealand.

Women and youth On Monday 23 May, the MUA women and youth conference was held.

I was blown away by what the MUA women and youth have done and what they have planned.

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The first part of the day was with the National President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Ged Kearney speaking on campaigns and how women and youth can get actively involved.

There were then in depth sessions on the Ready To Work campaign and how and what the women and the youth can do to engage, educate, and empower the members of the union.

The afternoon was a demonstration outside the office of Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash. This rally was set up and run by the women and youth. The purpose of the protest was to put focus on the Government policy for the use of “457” visas which are being used to employ foreign workers over local workers, and also the way the foreign workers are treated.

The MUA youth not only made new banners but came up with their own songs to march to while on the rally. Great to see that the future of the MUA is in great hands.

Main conference opens The conference was opened on Tuesday 24 February with a welcome to the country by B. McGuire and Red Spear, an indigenous group from Perth telling the story of their people and their land.

Once the conference was opened we were shown a short video on what is happening in Australia with the 457 visas.

There was then a very in-depth talk on health and safety and a video on someone’s own experience in work place death which was very hard to watch.

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MUA West Australia Secretary Chris Cain then gave an address on the importance of members attending stopworks and meetings.

He also talked on the International and the importance of it, and why we should not give our officials a hard time about going away.

Without the support of international unions the outcomes in many disputes would have been a different story.

The other international unions represented were the RMT (Rail and Maritime Transport Union) from the UK, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) from West Coast North America, Alaska, Panama and Hawaii, the KPI (Seafarers’ Union of Indonesia), Papua New Guinea Maritime Transport Workers Union (PNGMTWU), United Steel Workers (USW) from North America, Singapore Organization of Seamen (SOS) and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

There was also a large number of Australian unions at the conference as well.

MUNZ National Secretary Joe Fleetwood spoke on what is happening in New Zealand on the political scene and how the employment law changes in NZ would affect workers and their unions.

There was a very moving tribute to Bob Crow, the General Secretary of the RMT, who died last year. We got conference t-shirts with a picture of him with the quote “they don’t like us, we don’t care” – for those who don’t know their football this saying come from Millwall FC. Bob Crow made it his own, in reference to the employers.

Internationalism Wednesday 25 February was international day with unions from around the world speaking on the issue that face them and how these could affect other unions.

RMT National Secretary Steve Todd from the seafarers section spoke on what is happening in the UK. Zero hour contracts are a major problem. He also spoke on the ITF and the Liverpool Dockers.

MUNZ National President Garry Parsloe spoke on changes to employment law in New Zealand. He then reported on the Ports of Auckland dispute, on how it started, what happened during, and how they got the new CEA. Garry finished off with thanking all the international unions for their support over this and other the years and then announced his retirement as National President and also as President of the Auckland Branch.

At this time I would like to thank Garry for all his support and help over the years and wish him a happy retirement.

The next speaker was Hanafi Rustandi, President of KPI.

www.munz.org.nz

Chris Cain introduced him and thanked him for the support regarding the pipe line work and his statement that Indonesian workers would not take work off Australian workers.

Hanafi spoke on the importance to have women and youth in our unions as they are the future.

He also spoke of the respect he had for Chris Cain and how much he has learnt from him, and how the youth need to learn from him and follow his example, and if they do that the MUA have a great future.

Daniel Tan from the Singapore Organisation of Seamen talked on why unions need to work together as big companies have gone global and network around the world. Trust, respect, and no hidden agendas are required if we are going to win the fights around the world.

Chris Cain ended the day on saying we needed to fix our backyard first before we can help in global fight.

Unions need to give members resources On the final day, Friday 27 February, there was a discussion on political activism.

This including the Australian Labor Party, and the need to work with all parties at some sort of level. All unions must work with other unions, empowering members from the bottom up.

Unions need to give members the resources to help in campaigns and training.

Why are some industries being cut, like Australia Post, when over 4 billion letters were posted last year?

Other topics discussed were why join a union, members are our bosses as they pay the officials’ wages, the importance of communicating with members, getting our women and youth more involved, and free trade agreements and how bad they are for workers.

CFMEU WA Secretary Mick Buchan talked about the importance on issues that affected not just his but all unions and the need to stand together.

ITF Campaign Co-ordinator Shannon O’Keefe and the Youth Committee talked about the Chevron campaign.

The final panel of the day was a round up in the areas of youth, women and indigenous. I was invited to speak on the panel about what we can do within MUNZ to get our women and youth actively involved in our branches.

I am looking forward to working closely with my branch and other branches to make this happen.

I also presented our Wellington branch flag to the MUA WA branch as it is our sister branch.

The conference ended on Friday with the MUA Gala Ball.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 13

The right to come home alive: the struggle for health and safety laws that work

By Victor Billot Employers and a right wing faction in the National Party are undermining proposed new health and safety laws, while New Zealand workers continue to be killed and maimed on the job.

Even cynical political journalists in the Parliamentary Press Gallery have been outraged by the cold disregard for the lives of working people shown by this campaign to delay and disrupt protections for working people.

John Armstrong, writing in the Dominion Post in June 2015, described New Zealand’s work safety record as shameful – “one of the worst in the West.”

He said efforts by some employers to water down the Health and Safety Reform Bill and reduce worker involvement in workplace health and safety would result in a “much weakened law”.

The conservative New Zealand Herald also weighed in with an editorial, that stated “Lives are at stake, and the Prime Minister is on thin ice in arguing the Government is simply trying to ensure the new law is not too hard or expensive to follow.”

The battle is far from over, even as divisions open up in the ranks of the National Party and their businessowning backers.

Further accidents happening on a regular basis add urgency to the reforms.

It’s worth recapping why and where these proposed new health and safety laws came about.

29 mine workers lost their lives in the Pike River mine disaster of November 2010.

Investigations found the disaster was the result of inadequate and flawed laws and regulations, which let the employer get away with substandard and dangerous practices.

The Royal Commission into Pike River then led to a complete overhaul of New Zealand’s workplace health and safety laws, with the Government appointing an independent taskforce on workplace health and safety.

Health and safety system “not fit for purpose” In 2013, the Chairman of the Taskforce, Rob Jager, said New Zealand’s workplace health and safety system had a number of critical weaknesses and needed major systemic changes to save lives.

14 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

Mr Jager, who is also the New Zealand Chairman of Shell, reported back the existing health and safety system “is not fit for purpose”.

New legislation was drafted and the Health and Safety Reform Bill came before Parliament.

At the end of May 2015, the Government gave a select committee another six weeks to consider the Bill because small businesses and farmers were concerned about some of its measures.

The Government was getting the wobbles.

There was talk of a “back bench” revolt as pressure came on MPs with Prime Minister John Key seeking to defuse the brewing row.

Farmers and small business lobby groups want to exempt firms with fewer than 20 staff from crucial parts of the bill, including its central focus on worker involvement.

Right wing National MP Judith Collins, who resigned as a cabinet minister prior to the 2014 election, was identified as one powerful figure moving to wind back improvements in health and safety laws.

She described the legislation as needing “tweaking” and needing to be “a little bit more practical for people”.

What people she was talking about was unclear – presumably not the working people whose lives are being put at risk daily.

Union campaign On the other side, Unions are waging a strong campaign to demand the health and safety laws are kept intact.

CTU President Helen Kelly’s leadership of the union movement has seen an unrelenting focus on health and safety matters.

As most readers will know, Helen has publicly spoken about her terminal cancer, diagnosed earlier this year. Despite this devastating news, she has continued to maintain a strong public profile to push through stronger health and safety laws, which will benefit all workers, whether union members or not.

This serves as a reminder that all workers benefit from unions, which set the bar for wages, conditions and health and safety.

In a surprising development, the organization representing big businesses in New Zealand, has urged the Government to keep on track with the Health and Safety Bill.

The head of the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum, Francois Barton, represents 178 of New Zealand’s largest companies.

He says big business wants the reforms passed swiftly and for large and small firms to be brought into the regime.

“We don’t want to see any undue delay or dilution.”

General manager for health and safety at Z Energy, Julian Hughes, said that “The saying goes that we have a Pike River on our farms every year . . . we just do it one at a time. We have 20 to 30 farmers a year killed in New Zealand.”

“I don’t think we’ve forgotten Pike River, but we’re in danger of forgetting Pike River. The changes that we put in place is what we owe those men.” www.munz.org.nz

Explosion at Pike River mine

Split in business interests This is an unusual split between different interests within New Zealand capitalism.

The major corporates can see that bad health and safety undermines their industries and eventually damages their profits. Because of their size and structure, they are taking the longer view and want to see New Zealand’s health and safety systems in line with global standards for developed nations.

However, some smaller employers are focussed entirely on short term profit.

While there may be individual greed and self interest involved, the main motivation is economic.

The harsh competition in the modern capitalist marketplace reduces the status of the worker to a disposable commodity. The life of the worker is weighed up against the impact on profit.

These divisions are reflected in the National Party, between a pragmatic group who are interested in preserving the long term functioning of the system they benefit from and are prepared to compromise, and a more hardline ideological group who are fundamentally opposed to anything that empowers the working class.

For this type, workers are simply arms and legs, and have no worth outside their contribution to private profit. Any investment in a safer workplace is seen as a cost and is to be resisted.

It seems remarkable that there is even a debate about health and safety in a supposedly developed nation in the 21st century. www.munz.org.nz

But sadly, the battle for safe workplaces is like so many other battles.

Affordable, dry and warm housing, a healthy diet, liveable wages, a high standard of health for the general population – these are all battles that were fought long ago, and are now under sustained attack from the ruling class, who have managed to convince a section of working people that their interests have something in common.

This expresses itself in the strange idea that regulations and protections for workers are the agenda of the “nanny state” which wants to take away “our freedom”.

It’s an idea which has resonance in New Zealand culture, where a macho “hard man” mentality combines with conformism and not wanting to “rock the boat”.

But as we know, it doesn’t matter how much of a tough guy you are, no one is tough enough to come off best in an argument with heavy machinery.

That is why the attacks on unions have damaged our health and safety in the workplace so much.

Union culture provided a way to show young people coming into an industry that the correct approach was never to take short cuts or risk yourself, as the only one benefitting from cutting corners would be the bosses’ bottom line.

Sadly, that common sense and working class awareness has been lost to a degree, as precarious and insecure jobs combine with deference to the employer in a toxic mix. [continued next page] The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 15

[continued from previous page] As debate rages, a well publicised quarry death occurred in June in Canterbury, the third quarry death this year in New Zealand. It was a tragedy for those involved.

But sadly it is also a metaphor for the attitudes and approaches that infect a certain level of New Zealand society today.

The individual killed was a small businessman. He operated in a quarry had no license, and had no certificate of competence.

It turns out that there is a huge hole in the oversight of quarries in general.

Former New Zealand quarry inspector and manager Andrew Robertson, who has more than 50 years’ industry experience, told media it appeared the quarry workers had undermined a 40 metre face.

It lacked “benches” – effectively wide ledges down the rockface which would avoid overhanging and the potential of rocks “toppling” under stress.

“It looks like the excavator was right against the face . . . you never work right against the face and this is something he [Taylor] would have learned in training. You stay the full length of the dipper boom away from the face and you have a trench between at all times so if anything comes down it goes into that.”

There are no active checks on quarry operators and there are no hard figures on how many quarries there are in New Zealand, with compliance left up to the operators.

Certificates, previously issued by the industry training organisation, are now looked after by a newly established board of examiners.

About a month before the Canterbury quarry death, WorkSafe had begun getting the ITO’s historical records and was cross-correlating those with a new quarry database.

The continued stream of accidents in New Zealand industry has to stop.

As John Armstrong wrote in his commentary for the Dominion Post, any weakening of the new health and safety laws for the convenience of employers would have a simple consequence – “This in turn is likely to mean that New Zealand workers will continue to die needlessly.”

16 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

Centreport sentenced following death The Maritime Union has welcomed the sentencing of a port company following the death of a union member in a workplace accident.

Mark Samoa (47) died in a workplace accident at Centreport, Wellington, on 20 January 2013.

The port company was sentenced in June 2015 at the Wellington District Court after being found guilty of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of Mr Samoa.

Judge Bill Hastings ordered CentrePort to pay $15,000 reparation and a fine of $60,691.

He found that CentrePort failed to physically separate the tasks of placing stacks and the task of labelling stacks and failing to have a clear and detailed procedure for all workers required to use forklifts and those pasting and labelling of packs.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) had brought a prosecution against the port company.

Mark Samoa’s sister, Rhonda Samoa, said after the sentencing she hoped other companies took notice and she was “disgusted” when she heard of deaths at other ports.

“Death shouldn’t be in the workplace. We have every right to go to work and try to earn a [living] for our families and make good lives for ourselves. We have every right to be safe and free from such dangerous hazards.”

Mr Samoa was an experienced watersider and longstanding member of the Maritime Union.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says that the waterfront industry in New Zealand is a dangerous industry.

“The amount of reparation cannot replace the value of a human life.”

Three members of the Union had lost their lives in port accidents in recent years, there had been a larger number of serious injuries, and deaths and injuries of contractors or other port employees.

Mr Fleetwood says the main concern of the Union was fatigue from irregular shifts, the constant pressure for speed ups of work by employers, and attempts to reduce manning levels.

He says that it is imperative that proposed health and safety legislation is not undermined an attitude of “profit before safety.”

www.munz.org.nz

Port Otago straddle accident A Maritime Union member was seriously injured in a straddle accident at Port Chalmers on Wednesday 1 July 2015. The man was taken to Dunedin Hospital following the crash that occurred around 1.15pm at Port Otago.

Investigations are being carried out by Worksafe and Port Otago.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the union will be following the investigation closely and supporting the member and his family. He says ongoing accidents in ports throughout New Zealand were a concern.

Mr Fleetwood says this reinforces the Maritime Union’s call for an industry wide health and safety inquiry looking at all stevedoring operations in New Zealand, including both current operators and new operators.

International Transport Workers’ Federation International President Paddy Crumlin sent a message to MUNZ passing on “the best wishes to your member and his family and workmates for a speedy recovery” from the ITF and Maritime Union of Australia.

He supported calls for a full investigation into the circumstances and urged the Port and safety regulator to identify the gap in the application of best practice Stevedoring health and safety enforcement to ensure confidence in the prevailing standards. www.munz.org.nz

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 17

The new mooring system technology in use in New Plymouth

New Plymouth Hi from New Plymouth. I hope you’re all keeping well, staying safe and warm so that these colder months fly by and summer returns before we know it. Lately, workloads have been slow but finally boats are coming in more regularly so we can look forward to a busy period over the next few months. Touch wood!

as high as in previous years, but still steady enough to be our most common product discharge.

Fertiliser while usually seasonal is also on the horizon, and demand for those products could be in response to trying to boost growth in their own feeds rather than importing but only time will tell.

The Port Company is currently waiting for contractors working at clearing more of the demolished internals of the old Power Station to make more room for storage of bulk products.

Total space at this stage is currently unknown but estimated that it should be in the vicinity of 15,000 – 20,000 tonnes.

Logs

Scrap vessels

By Terry Whitehead

No surprise that while we are getting ships, the volumes are way down on what we were doing.

Our new diggers are hopefully now paying themselves off but without the cargo, it has to be a worrying time for all ports especially the branches that have invested in plant and equipment.

At least we now have the capability to fully man any vessels whether it’s a 2 or 3 gang contract and a big rap to the guys who have stepped up to drive the diggers and who now travel out of port to do it as well.

Our new client, Summit Forests, has been railing in cargo but volumes are low and slow at this stage.

Bulk cargo Palm kernel continues to come in but with the lower dairy price payouts, some farmers must surely be cutting back.

Without a doubt animal feeds is one area they are looking at to save money as the volumes are nowhere 18 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

We have worked a few but not the expected volumes we were hoping for, despite the Power Station getting demolished right next to the port.

A lot seems to be trucked out rather than shipped which must make sense to someone but is a little disappointing for us as its work we could really use.

We realize the precious metals that hold the most value need to be sorted and containerized to achieve maximum return for the demolition contractors but there is an estimated 25,000 tonnes of scrap (mostly heavy gauge) so hopefully if prices go up they may bring more vessels in but we won’t hold our breath.

Oil and gas There has been a very noticeable downturn here.

The Oil and Gas sector is in a very quiet phase. No new exploration is being currently being undertaken and with the exception of some survey work being conducted, only the usual servicing of the Maui platform and tankers is happening. www.munz.org.nz

New mooring system Recently, the Port Company has invested more than $2 million in a new mooring tension system developed in Europe to aid in the prevention of mooring lines snapping.

The system is in place in Esperance in Western Australia where 300–400 lines were breaking each year. Since this system was installed there have been zero. This is a fact that sold its benefits to John Ireland who travelled there to witness it first hand on behalf of the port company.

With our open port surges and frequency of putting boats out until settled weather returns, this is welcome news to all involved.

Out of port As always, a huge thank you to the ports who cross hire us and we are very grateful to local branches for the work and opportunity to travel to your fine ports.

Much appreciated in our idle time as it helps our branch to keep active and viable.

Seafarers Recently there has been a dispute over unpaid wages and arrears that needed the attendance of one of their members in Wellington to meet with the employers.

We as a branch are here to help and support, either morally and or financially so please if you have any issues don’t hesitate to get hold of me or our branch President as we are happy to assist in any way possible.

Other branch news Our Stop Work Meeting held in April was very well attended as always.

Safety, training and voting in a new branch President were all on the agenda so thanks and congratulations to Isaac McIndoe for taking on the role of President.

He will be well supported by us all.

Take care out there and keep safe. Till next time, have a good one.

Bluff

By Harry Holland

Around the port We have been very busy since the start of the year, with a successful completion to our agreement at Southland Stevedoring Services which has been signed off and ratified. Thanks to the guys for sticking in there.

The company is progressing quite well and has announced that they are about to hire ten more permanents into the company which is great news for the young ones coming into to the industry.

www.munz.org.nz

Our elections for the Branch Executive took place some time ago but the results were only ratified at our AGM in May. The office holders stayed the same as last year with the exception of two new executive members.

I would like to welcome on board Andrew Alexander (Sausage) and Christian Fife, who stood as new members and got in.

We look forward to working with them.

The members at the port company are still doing good things and it is great to have them along side us.

Health and safety On the health and safety side, SSS is still involved with a lot of training and upskilling men.

We have done a Met Pro course and a shipwright training module.

Cargo Cargo wise we have been busy shifting logs and fertiliser.

There haven’t been any more pitch problems at the Smelter.

The MSC container line has been very steady in and out of Bluff, and the two crane system is working well, reducing the turn around time.

There was also a shipment of Wind farm gear that came in, which will be erected at Green Point.

ITF I had an email from ITF inspector Grahame McLaren regarding the African Harrier.

The Second Engineer was about over his time and wanted off the ship. I went down to the ship and made arrangements to get this man repatriated back to Mumbai. This is a nearly new ship which is having some real problems.

On her last trip to Bluff we saw crew problems, and on this trip she has had the Captain taken off for being drunk in charge and the Second Engineer wanting to get out. One wonders.

Also there will be a report to follow on the log vessel, the Boontrika Naree, which is in a sad state.

Other notes It was sad to see the retirement of National President Garry Parsloe but we all know that the day comes for all to move on and put our feet up. From the Bluff Branch and all our members we wish you a very happy and long retirement.

One of our life members recently passed away.

Allan Ramsay (Babe) started in 1959 and served till 2005, just on 45 years service. He was a great union man and served many years on the executive. Our thoughts go out to his family.

To all the other ports around the coast we hope you all have a very safe and successful year.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 19

Wellington

By Mike Clark Another era for Strait Shipping has begun with the arrival of their new vessel Strait Feronia, previously named the Stena Feronia, after a 45 day voyage from Sweden.

The Feronia, named for an ancient Roman Goddess associated with fertility, health and abundance, was purchased in January this year. She has had a major overhaul, including refurbishment of the main passenger areas, new radars and bridge equipment and a full paint job in Bluebridge colours.

Strait also commissioned the development of a simulator which enabled company Masters to experience how the ship will perform in local conditions like berthing in high winds and storms in the Strait.

Managing Director of Strait Shipping, Sheryl Ellison, said that Strait Shipping is delighted to have secured this vessel after a global search and that it will meet the demands of its customers that use the Cook Strait Service. The Feronia will replace the ageing Santa Regina in late June or early July.

Facts and Figures: Gross Tonnage: 21,856 Length: 186m Beam: 25.6m Draft: 6.4m Speed: 16 knots Build: 1997 in Italy Passengers: 400 Cargo: 2150 lane metres plus 100 cars.

Remaining on the Strait theme, Interislander has renamed their latest acquisition, the former Stena Allegra, as the Kaiarahi which in Maori means “Leadership” or “To Lead”, which we hope is the case.

It was chartered during the Aratere’s outage in late 2013 was not without its own problems, as it broke down in Wellington Harbour in its first week of operation, suffered propellor problems and also hit a Wellington wharf causing a gash in its hull.

The vessel is currently in dry dock in Singapore where it is undergoing major surgery, including stabilisers being fitted, engine room and navigation upgrades and gangway access.

At this stage the vessel should arrive in Wellington mid-August where crews will undergo familiarisation and training and the vessel commissioning and certification before entering into service.

The old war horse, Arahura, will be retired on the 31 July so there will be only a two ferry service until the Kaiarahi enters service.

We are currently in talks with management regarding the number of people to crew the vessels and also the deployment of crew to the other vessels in the fleet. Letters are being sent to affected crew with a consultation period for those crew to respond.

The Jack up rig Ensco 107 is currently finishing the Maari Campaign for OMV and Todd Energy which will result in the loss of one of the Swires support vessels.

There have been rumours that the Ensco will be laid up in Taranaki with unconfirmed rumours it will be utilised for further work in New Zealand.

Also unconfirmed reports that Shell and OMV are negotiating with Rig companies worldwide about the possibility of drilling a deepwater wildcat well in the Great South Basin during the 2015-2016 summer, which will be welcome news for our members.

Wellington Branch Secretary Mike Clark

Offshore Oil and Gas

As in previous years there has been a downturn in the industry which is mainly centred in the Taranaki Region.

I suspect this is a waiting game by the operator for world oil prices to recover so they can engage in more exploration and development programmes.

20 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

Wellington Branch Assistant Secretary John Whiting

www.munz.org.nz

Wellington waterfront report by John Whiting CentrePort

The Wellington Port Company is continuing to start new workers in the cargo handling area to deal with an increase in container volumes through the port.

This welcome increase has grown on the back of the successful CentreRail marketing initiative, with CentrePort leasing wagons from Kiwirail on a daily basis, and spreading the aggregation area for cargo, both imports and exports, well up the North Island, and also the upper South Island.

The only current drawback is a major transformer failure in one portainer crane—our understanding is that this type of mishap is almost unheard of. Big efforts are underway to restore the Port to a two crane operation.

CentrePort Drug and Alcohol Policy

This policy was originally drafted in 2008. Our Union, together with the RMTU, the EPMU, and the Company, put in many hours, and much effort, towards achieving the best possible outcome. We believed that the final document was state of the art for its time. Included was the provision that random testing would be on a saliva basis as per MUNZ policy. The policy was used as a model to develop like policies with other employers at sites around New Zealand.

Unfortunately, in the period since 2008, there have been over twenty failed tests at CentrePort, all in the cargo area.

The failures have been both in randoms and postaccident/incident tests. Many of these workers are no longer employed at CentrePort.

In respect of those who have entered the rehabilitation process, three are still employed.

As expected, the employer’s reaction to what has been happening has been to impose tighter requirements on the cargo workforce, including urine testing in all circumstances, and a higher number of random tests per person, per annum, until a nil result across the board is achieved.

Also access to rehabilitation only at the Company’s discretion. In other words, no carrot, and much more stick. Our constant advice to the members has been that to secure their employment, the only way forward is don’t take any illegal substances, and be extremely careful in having the proper interval between consumption of alcohol and starting work.

The whole saga is of individuals not controlling their own behaviour, resulting in many cases with the loss of their jobs, and a harsh impact on those left behind.

www.munz.org.nz

CentrePort/T.S.L

This work area is the empty container receival/ delivery/inspection operation now wholly owned by the Port Company.

The new MUNZ Collective Agreement covering this work is well bedded in, and providing improved terms and conditions for the members concerned, as many are new starts. Another success story for the Union and these members.

C3

We are still working through the implementation of the renewal of this Collective Agreement. This Company is in expansion mode in Wellington, with a noteworthy foray into log stevedoring, hopefully to become a growth area.

Interport Sports 2016

Wellington will be Host Port. All participants are welcome. Full details are on the back cover of this edition of Maritimes.

Has your address changed?

If you are not receiving the Maritimes magazine in the mail, you need to update your address details.

Email membership@munz.org.nz or write to PO Box 27004, Wellington – and remember to advise your branch officials as well.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 21

George Clark of Lyttelton Branch sent these photos of knot work and other memorabilia from his collection, which he has been adding items to for 20 years.

The above anchor was made by seafarer Forest McDougall and framed and gifted to the Lyttelton Branch by George.

The Maritimes will feature more of this historic art form in future editions. If any other members have items of interest, let us know.

Lyttelton

By Les Wells We are in talks at the moment with the Lyttelton Port Company over changes it wants in the terminal.

Some of these proposals are very radical compared to our current practices.

The company claims to want “what other ports have” so it has gone and picked the best practice from each port, and is trying to foist this on us.

We have had some meetings with the company and will carry on doing this but my fear is it will just go ahead with what it wants.

LPC has pleaded guilty to the charges laid by Worksafe over the death of Brad Fletcher. It will come up for sentencing next month.

22 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

We are looking at going into talks with C3 soon and we have a list of claims that I believe are very reasonable, so should not take too long to settle.

The agreement at Lyttelton Stevedoring Services comes up for renewal in October so we will not be far away from calling for claims from our members there.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish Russell Warr all the best in his retirement after 44 years on the waterfront, the final years spent as labour allocator for LSS. I have caught up with our delegate at SGS and he informs me that they are taking on new people.

Tunnel control is very quiet at the moment so more than happy not to rock the boat.

Work continues on the two new inland ports at Rolleston, one operated by Port of Tauranga and Timaru, the other by Lyttelton. The whole area is going through major development at the moment, and MUNZ will be in the mix.

www.munz.org.nz

Nelson

By Bill Lewis 922

AGM The Branch AGM was held in February 2015 and the financial report read by Ken Knox was well received, as it shows the branch in good financial shape.

Paul Saggers was elected as Vice President following the resignation of Tony Westrupp.

Stevedores Negotiation of the recently expired Collective Agreement is underway. The labour requirement at the moment is into a slack period and some members are being cross hired to the port company when required. Delegates have been reminded to use the MUNZ website to report any injuries, workplace incidents or deficiencies aboard vessels.

President An email was forwarded from the Branch to Garry Parsloe wishing a long and happy retirement, after a long duration in office and through many struggles, including the Ports of Auckland dispute.

ITF visit A visit to the vessel Chentu was made to gain some information on the plight of the Filipino engineer who wished to return home for his mother’s funeral.

Due to our intervention he was flown home in time, as a relief that had been arranged would have been too late.

Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) A well advertised protest took place in Nelson in March. We would encourage more members to front up next time as the ramifications of the TPPA deal are enormous for the working class. It is a secretly negotiated deal and could impact on job opportunities in the offshore, amongst many other problems.

Christmas Party The 2014 Nelson Christmas Party function was held at the Turf Hotel and well attended with plenty of food, drink, good music and good company to celebrate the festive season.

Branch and local contacts Whangarei Secretary: Ben Hathaway Home: (09) 4343152 President: John Farrow Mobile: 021 855121 Address: PO Box 397, Whangarei 0140 Email: ben.hathaway@munz.org.nz

Auckland Local 13 Phone: (09) 3034 652 Fax: (09) 3096 851 Secretary: Russell Mayn Mobile: 021 760 886 Email: russell.mayn@munz.org.nz Assistant Secretary: Craig Harrison Mobile: 027 422 5238 Email: craig.harrison@munz.org.nz President: Hector Thorpe Mobile: 027 777 7163 Email: hectorthorpe@gmail.com Vice President: Carl Findlay Mobile: 021 760 887 Email: carl.findlay@munz.org.nz Vice President: Patrick Honan Mobile: 021 293 9156 Address: PO Box 1840, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140

Mount Maunganui Phone: (07) 5755 668 Fax: (07) 5759 043 President: Peter Harvey Mobile: 027 5501 566 Secretary: Selwyn Russell Mobile: 0274 782308 Email: selwyn.russell@munz.org.nz Address: PO Box 5121, Mt. Maunganui 3150 New Plymouth Secretary: Phone/Fax: Address: Email:

Terry Whitehead Mobile: 027 468 0050 (06) 751 5514 PO Box 6084, New Plymouth npmunz@yahoo.com

Napier Secretary: Phone/Fax: Email:

Bill Connelly Mobile: 027 6175441 (06) 8358 622 Address: PO Box 70, Napier bill.connelly@munz.org.nz

Wellington Secretary: Email: Phone: Asst. Secretary: Email: Phone: Address: President: Vice President:

Mike Clark Mobile: 0274 538222 mike.clark@munz.org.nz (04) 3859 288 Fax: (04) 3848 766 John Whiting Mobile: 021 606379 john.whiting@munz.org.nz (04) 8017 619 PO Box 27004, Wellington 6141 Alan Windsor Mobile: 021 148 3771 Jimmy King Mobile: 027 363 0194

Nelson Secretary: Phone/Fax: Address: Email:

Ken Knox Mobile: 027 6222691 (03) 547 2102 PO Box 5016, Nelson ken.knox@munz.org.nz

Lyttelton Local 43 Secretary: Les Wells Mobile: 027 432 9620 Phone/Fax: (03) 3288 306 Address: PO Box 29, Lyttelton Email: les.wells@munz.org.nz

Timaru Secretary: Tony Townshend Mobile: 027 4324134 Address: PO Box 813, Timaru Email: tony.townshend@munz.org.nz

Port Chalmers Dunedin Local 10 Phone: (03)4728 052 Fax: (03) 4727 492 Secretary: Phil Adams Mobile: 0274 377601 Email: phil.adams@munz.org.nz Address: PO Box 44, Port Chalmers Bluff Phone/Fax: President: Email: Secretary: Email:

www.munz.org.nz

(03) 2128 189 Address: PO Box 5, Bluff Harry Holland Mobile: 027 228 4315 harry.munz@xtra.co.nz Ray Fife Mobile: 027 447 5317 ray.fife@munz.org.nz The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 23

Auckland Local 13

This is just a snapshot of some of the Collective Agreements currently under negotiation and the membership that we cover in these areas.

By Russell Mayn

Health and Safety

Collective agreements There has been a lot going in the Port and at sea over the last few months. We have a number of Collective Agreements up for renewal.

Some of these are just beginning and some are well down the track to ratification.

Wallace Stevedoring Collective Agreement is our largest agreement in the conventional port and is ready to go to ratification.

The Pacifica Collective Agreement covers two container vessels operating on the New Zealand Coast and is very close to going to ratification. This will be our first Collective Agreement between MUNZ and China Navigation, the new owners of Pacifica Shipping.

We are starting negotiations to renew the Collective Agreement for the Fullers Ferries who operate on the Waitemata Harbour. There are two Collective Agreements we cover in this company, the Marine and the Maintenance agreements.

There is a new ferry operator in competition with Fullers, so this should be an interesting negotiation given the new player in the market. To comment on this it seems that yet again, as in the Ports, the Holy Grail of competition for competition sakes leads to waste as infrastructure is duplicated unnecessarily.

It would be interesting to know what the cost of all this so called competition and duplication of plant and machinery really is, and how this actually benefits anyone, let alone the ordinary working person.

The Holcim Cement Collective Agreement has been settled and we are just waiting for the first meeting date for the Golden Bay Cement Agreement.

The Golden Bay Agreement will be an important agreement for us and the best place to find out further details on all of our negotiation is at the monthly Stopwork meetings and at the monthly Delegate meetings.

Sanford’s Collective Agreement has just been ratified and this is now for a term of two years, a break from the regular one year agreements.

Winstone’s Aggregates, again we are waiting for the first meeting date. Our members at this plant have been long standing members of the union. The plant operates in the Waikato at Pukekawa and extracts sand and various other products generally used in road construction and maintenance.

In Tauranga we have started the talks to renew the Ballance Fertiliser Collective Agreement. Like Winstone’s, our members here are long standing MUNZ members. In the plant we cover workers from the Acidulation plant through to the various dispatch and distribution centres.

24 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

At all of our workplaces whether they be on land or sea, our priority is the safety of our members on the job and the right to return home free of injury at the end of every working day.

It would seem that a number in the National Party don’t view this basic right as a priority, as the proposed changes that they are putting forward for the new Health and Safety regulations are a step backwards for a high number of workers in New Zealand.

I have to agree with the pundits that the Prime Minister believes that given the time that has expired following the Pike River tragedy, the appetite for tougher Health and Safety regulations has waned.

This is certainly not the case for workers and their families, especially those who earn their living in dangerous and challenging environments.

Is this a case where regulations should only be applied for the large and not the small. Such a stance raises a number of questions, these are many and varied and cannot be covered in just one article.

I will touch on just a couple. The first would be why should you be exposed to a greater degree of deregulation if you work for a smaller company than if you work for a larger company?

It is absurd to adopt such a stance. What this means in reality is that Health and Safety representatives will not be required in a company with under twenty employees yet in a company over the twenty threshold, Health and Safety representatives are part of the requirements.

How can this promote and facilitate a safer workplace? It can’t. This proposal is in my view a ploy to protect small business owners who are traditionally National supporters.

Without trained Health and Safety representatives, hazards will be overlooked for many reasons, financial and lack of knowledge are just the tip of the iceberg.

There is also the case of equity to consider, as some of our employers spend a substantial sum on improving the safety of workers, and they also compete with a number of smaller companies for the same contracts.

If the smaller companies are allowed to have an advantage when it comes to compliance costs the result will be that contracts will change hands.

All this means is that companies with a good Health and Safety record who support Health and Safety representatives in the workplace will be disadvantaged. It also raises the spectre of larger companies forming shelf companies so that they fall under the threshold for compliance.

It all sounds like the proverbial can of worms to me.

www.munz.org.nz

MUNZ members aboard the Kakariki drydock at Cosco shipyard in Zhoushan, China, from left, Pita Vete (Bosun), Ben Mayn (AB), Byron Cumming (AB), John Harvey (Cook), Mike Nichols (AB), and John Kerr (AB) The new legislation should be strengthening our Health and Safety regulations, and we would be better looking at incentives for companies with established audited Health and Safety policies.

Let’s start with independent union inspectors for the identified sectors where there is a high number of workplace injuries. This is no new untried stab in the dark proposal but a proven system that operates in the Australian Mining Industry and has a proven track record.

The right wing might not like it but just imagine the effect it could have across New Zealand workplaces.

The truth is it would reduce a substantial number of injuries and deaths and create a focus on what is currently a very poor track record in New Zealand.

We have only just scratched the surface and over the ensuing weeks will be joining the NZCTU and all other likeminded unions in opposing the watering down of the regulations covering Health and Safety due to come before Government.

The elections have been completed for the President and Assistant Secretary positions in Local 13 and congratulations to the successful candidates.

www.munz.org.nz

Local 13 2015 Elections For: Secretary/Treasurer 2 x Vice Presidents 12 executive members • Nominations open on Monday the 31st August 2015 at 7:00am.

• Nominations close on Friday the 9th October 2:30pm.

• “Beauty Parade”: candidates address the Monday 12th October 2015 stopwork meeting.

• Election opens on Monday the 19th October 2015, ballot papers are mailed out to members.

• Election closes midday Monday the 7th December 2015.

• Nomination forms will available from the Union Office.

• Candidate profile/statement to accompany nomination form.

• Members please update your postal address at the Union Office if you want to have your say.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 25

Retiring Napier Branch Secretary Bill Connelly received a standing ovation and tributes from other branches for his long service to the Maritime Union at the May 2015 national council meeting. Pictured here are National President Carl Findlay, National Secretary Joe Fleetwood, Bill Connelly, Assistant National Secretary Ray Fife and National Vice President Selwyn Russell (photo by Victor Billot)

MUNZ National Secretary Joe Fleetwood addresses the ILWU international convention, June 2015 26 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

www.munz.org.nz

Tauranga Mount Maunganui

By Selwyn Russell Kia ora from the sunny Bay of Plenty. It’s been a year of contrasts within our union nationally, with the lowest point being the loss of a respected national council representative from Lyttleton in 2014 as a result of an accident in the port.

The Auckland branch finally got a collective over the line after three plus years of battling with the Ports of Auckland management.

I know for sure the Port Company was putting on immense pressure to get MUNZ and true union representation off the wharf.

Port of Tauranga update There is a $150 million expansion due to begin within the port, and a report suggests there is going to be another two shoreside cranes ordered.

I believe that it won’t be too long before automation rears its head. This will have an incredible impact on the need for straddle and shore crane drivers, as seen in the many overseas ports with container terminals.

Although MUNZ does not have members within the terminal here it should be noted that if and when automation happens, it will have an impact as many skilled workers will be made redundant.

Where we are lucky is that our members are within container wash and general cargo, and you cannot automate that yet.

So it is imperative we retain our contracts and get collectives with the best conditions we can.

With the high value of the New Zealand dollar and the costs of fuel, and the opening up of Russia’s forestry, there is an expectation of the timber industry slowing for a while.

C3 The BHP steel contract has been downgraded with a reduction in steel cargo. We have no say in this, so all we can do is hope that they pick up more contracts.

As noted the logs may slow as well.

We are just about to go into contractual bargaining and what we have to do is secure our men and numbers on the wharf with a health and safety focus.

Where this comes unstuck is when members are at fault risking it.

Hatchmen should be there all the times. On general cargo it is a must that they stay on the ship as designated. If you are a crane driver with limited vision you should not work without one.

We are in an industry where employers with yellow unions have reduced hatchmen. It is our jobs and safety, and we must defend this safeguard. We have hatchmen for safety reasons and must adhere to the numbers on board when allocated. www.munz.org.nz

Ballance The good news here is that we have had our claims meeting in May and have commenced negotiations.

NZCSL We have been quiet here for a while and have got another year on the agreement, with a document that includes Auckland, Napier, and Tauranga.

NZM Some of these guys go way back when they were Kaimai Stevedoring. Now we are very fortunate that they have picked up contracts, and sometimes they go out of port when other companies are lacking with their local numbers. They have been able to achieve work backing up Bluff, Timaru, and Whangarei.

This has led to the hours and numbers going up, and I am hoping to approach the members to get engaged for a collective and move towards permanency.

This is a priority here. We have to try and leave our members some kind of permanency within all our employment agreements as our legacy.

Wilsons Parking These members have ratified a new agreement but unfortunately they will be made redundant soon due to automation of Route K toll booths.

Comvita We have ratified the agreement here.

Bakels Oils We are growing our membership here, and hoping to encourage more employees to join the union and secure employment with a collective.

Seafarers We have 37 seafarers within this branch. With the Rena and other work being available most have been in employment. However, shipping can be a feast or famine. We have an assurance within the Union that Tauranga seafarers will have fair and equitable opportunities for manning vessels.

We may have a dredge in this harbour soon working to deepen the channel for bigger ships. This means that we may have an opportunity for Tauranga seafarers to fill some of the positions that will become available here in their local port, again on a fair allocation basis.

ITF I would like to thank Peter Harvey and Richard Rankin for their assistance when going on vessels to check for seafarers rights and conditions.

We usually check at least three ships a month.

Issues can include a seafarer not being able to be sent home after his time on the ship, or not allowed to see doctors, or wages: the list is endless but that’s what MUNZ does here and at other ports.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 27

CTU Following his retirement, I have taken over from Garry Parsloe as the local Unions Tauranga contact.

I am not convinced that all other unions are that committed to this local group as they never turn up. Our branch is fully committed but we are not time wasters, and can’t hold other unions’ hands to organise them to attend.

Branch We have to look forward to achieving the goal of increased membership. I have just presented the numbers at the AGM. This is where all members have a role to play.

We should all try and get one other worker to join MUNZ from anywhere. This is a campaign that involves all of this branch’s membership.

Health and safety – delegate training We will be scouting within our membership for keen delegates to be trained up, and empowered with the knowledge of health and safety, union support, and to be able to recognise other members need for assistance.

To attain this we will be in touch with Auckland Branch Assistant Secretary Craig Harrison who will be coming into the branch to upskill our members up. So finally wrap up, it’s winter, and be safe!

Whangarei

By Ben Hathaway Marsden Point has been very busy with both shipping and new infrastructure happening.

We are waiting for the first of our two shore cranes to arrive, and that should give us more flexibility with cargo handling.

We have signed our collective with Southern Cross.

This was done in Auckland, in February with the new CEO of Southern Cross and our National Secretary present.

Under the circumstances, we achieved a satisfactory result, which we believe which is the same as the rest of the network.

If a tenth of the promises made by all the parties in the recent Northland by-election are kept, we will be in a great position, but we are not holding our breath.

Timaru

By Tony Townshend Timaru has been very busy with 21 fertilizer ships over four months, with a total of many thousands of tonnes of fertilizer and palm kernel.

We have been using a lot of out port labour.

Timaru Cargo Services are still trying to enrol 5 permanent staff plus a supervisor foreman.

C3 are still ticking along with about 7 GWES on 24 hour contracts, and we are still working on a collective.

Letter

Pacific Worker, May Day 2015

Dear members. After a difficult decision, I am now at a point where I feel I owe it to the membership to express my thanks to you all, especially the Wellington Branch, for all your support on my last two terms on the Wellington executive.

I felt I should publish this letter to inform all members that I will not be standing in the upcoming branch elections in June.

It has been a tough and time consuming decision.

Standing at a future election is quite on the cards and my active role on whatever ship I am on will continue.

Once again, many thanks to all who have supported me personally, especially in these difficult times in the labour movement.

Tony Mowbray 1154

28 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

www.munz.org.nz

New union project for Cook Strait

By National Womens Representative Marian Lesslie 0918 I was invited to attend this training programme on union leadership, which is run by the Council of Trade Unions and was a two week course, split into two one week blocks. Thanks to the Wellington branch I was able to attend.

There are several aims of this programme for emerging leaders. These include motivating leaders in union growth and development, and developing strategic thinking for union growth and capacity building, including leadership development for women, youth, Maori and Pasifika members.

Other goals included assisting union leaders to acquire knowledge and tools needed for union leadership, provide a global view of the union movement, and to develop leadership skills within the union movement and in the community.

There were 21 people on the course from a number of other unions including FIRST, UNITE, RMTU, EPMU, SFWU, Flight Attendants, CANZ, and NZEI. Week one was a very full on week. On day one, speakers included CTU President Helen Kelly, and CTU Secretary Sam Huggard.

EPMU National Secretary Bill Newson spoke on leading change in our unions.

Day two had presentations and discussions on union history in New Zealand, and the effects of labour deregulation including impacts on unions and bargaining. We also started discussing the project that we were working on.

On day three, there were presentations and discussions on developing effective leadership in a union context and growing Maori leadership in the union movement.

Levi and Brooke, cabin crew on board the Kaitaki www.munz.org.nz

The day ended with investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager coming to speak to us on “Dirty Politics.”

Day four was made up of presentations and discussions on organising frameworks, and a union response to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a free trade deal that has serious problems in it for New Zealand workers.

Day five was about good management for modern unions. The day ended up with an overview of our projects.

The second week started with CTU Secretary Sam Huggard talking to us about the CTU’s strategy for 2015-2017. There was also a panel discussion with online campaigning group Action Station, Auckland Action Against Poverty, and the Living Wage Aotearoa campaign. The following day there were workshops on the Treaty of Waitangi from a union context, and an international campaigning case study that looked at the Maritime Union of Australia.

There were also workshops on designing and developing a campaign for the 2017 elections.

The morning of day four was spent on resourcing, campaigning, organising and education. In the afternoon was the start of the project reports, which we completed on the final day.

My project is to set up a women’s and youth committee for the Cook Strait ferries.

In the long run I would hope other branches would look at setting up something along the same lines.

But the overall plan would be to have a women and youth committee within our national union.

I presented this idea at the MUNZ national council meeting in May and got same great feedback.

There will be more information sent out soon.

But in the meantime if anyone wants to know more please feel free to contact me via email: mazza1901@windowslive.com Once again thank you to the Wellington Branch for the opportunity to attend.

This was a very challenging course but I got so much out of it and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Annette McCauley, trainee AB on board the Kaitaki The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 29

Wealth by Stealth

By Russell Mayn Secretary, Local 13 The latest announcement by the National Government that they are proceeding with the sale of State Housing is another chapter in what has a long regression for New Zealand from the days when we boldly adopted the concept of the Welfare State.

The foresight that saw Michael Joseph Savage, the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, open the first State House in 1937 heralded a new era for lower income earners in the country.

Today the National Government is hell bent on selling off State Housing and handing over the supply of alternative State Housing options into the hands of the private sector.

This is not the first time that the National Government has attacked State Housing.

In 1950, the National Government introduced legislation where State Houses could be purchased with a 5% deposit, 3% loan and a maximum mortgage term of 40 years.Compared to what is going on today this could be viewed as a communist plot.

The questions that need to be asked are did the buyback reduce the number of available State Houses on a long term basis, and was such a scheme in conflict with the original concept that the State owned the houses for the purpose of housing New Zealanders who could not afford to buy.

The next step introduced by the National Government was to remove income related rents and introduce an accommodation allowance.

The reason given at the time was that this would equalise the public and private sector tenants.

This took place in 1991 along with full market rents.

One of the outcomes of this was that State Houses became unoccupied as many families could not afford market rents.

This takes us up to where we are today, the National Government is again attacking State Housing in a further attempt to farm everything out in New Zealand to private enterprise. Hence the heading of the article “Wealth by Stealth”. A long term agenda to move income into the hands of a few at the expense of the many. I have listened to the right wing politicians who say that Charities and Religious groups are better equipped to run housing than the Government is. Perhaps if you expand on this they would better equipped to run the Government than the National Party.

I don’t buy any of it. There are no guarantees that the proceeds from the sale of State Houses will even go back into an alternative housing project. It all looks likes smoke and mirrors. A bit like the Auckland Sky City Conference deal, with no detail and no disclosure.

Moving away from original welfare state.

It is so easy to forget how the Welfare State has been diluted and weakened when changes take place over an extended period of time.

30 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

This also applies to the employment and labour legislation now in place in New Zealand.

We have steadily moved away from the vision of a welfare state and the legislation that governed this, and we have also moved into an increasingly deteriorating labour market.

You could have lost a few beers if you were fond of a wager. Imagine if someone had said to you in the 1970s and the 1980s that there would be such a thing as zero hour contracts. When I went to school, zero meant nothing, so really these are just nothing contracts.

An employment agreement that legally does not need to have smoko and lunch breaks.

Contract labour used to undermine direct employment and working conditions.

All these attacks just seem to creep up on you, and before everyone realises they are the norm. As for Free Trade Agreements such as the TPPA, how can New Zealanders be expected to enter into an agreement that we don’t know the terms and conditions of? The answer being given by the National Government is “don’t worry it will be good for the country, trust us we know what we are doing”. Perhaps this is what they mean by a silent auction.

That statement alone should be enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone.

Imagine going to one of the negotiators of the TPPA and saying, have I got a deal for you, I will buy your house, it’s a good deal but you won’t know how good until you sign the deeds over. It seems bizarre but here we are on the cusp of such a deal taking place. I forgot to mention that we can’t change the deal once it’s done – it lasts forever, and if do try to make any changes you can be sued.

It’s not a deal, it’s a steal. Global “Wealth by Stealth”.

Remember the Godzone Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise – this must seem a distant time and place for New Zealanders living in our major centres.

Taking Auckland for an example. How young couples are supposed to enter the property market God Knows, as the price for a house in Auckland beggars belief.

Instead of a Pavlova Paradise it is now a fool’s paradise. While if you own a property suddenly you are very asset rich, what does this mean in real terms?

The asset you have will have to be distributed to your children if they are to have any chance of owning a home. So, for most families this means you are no better off but actually worse off. Is this just another way of making you feel comfortable while the average New Zealander is propelled into a future of market rents for the rest of their working life?

Surely the idea of the State House was to provide a place to live primarily for those who could not afford to buy. This also provided an opportunity for families in State Houses to save a deposit for their own home.

Market rents and the private sector will never deliver what was once a given in New Zealand.

How do you fix this, is the million dollar question.

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but what is required is bold reform. Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forward.

www.munz.org.nz

The opening of the First Labour government’s first state house in 1937 at 12 Fife Lane, Miramar, Wellington. Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage lifts a dining table towards the house while Housing Minister John A Lee looks on.

If profiteering from capital gains in the property market remains untaxed, the market will continue to roll on as a juggernaut out of control.

The issue of Capital Gains taxation was floated by the Labour Party and the fallout from this was registered at the polling booths.

This is difficult or probably political suicide for a political party to revisit unless a comprehensive package is put together and delivered with safeguards that are understood and which the voting public will buy into.

Good luck on this one as this will be attacked by the affluent and right wingers who have the most to lose under such a proposition.

Scaremongering and misinformation will win the day along with personal agendas and avarice.

Is there a case for a return to the original strategy that started in 1937 with the building and supply of State Housing?

If enough were built, this would go some way to cooling the property market, but as long as overseas and local investors view the property market as a more profitable alternative to mainstream investments the juggernaut will continue.

The conclusion to all of this is that no one strategy will win the day.

www.munz.org.nz

The fix is a number of bold reforms that complement each other. Supply, taxation, affordability and education are prerequisites and a political party that is willing to go out on a limb and campaign to turn the current system upside down for the benefit of middle and lower income workers.

A good old fashioned dose of Socialism and a return to the ideals first promoted when New Zealand was a Welfare State would more than likely do the trick.

You cannot go there without decent labour laws that provide a reasonable source of income and protection for workers.

The alternative is grim. The gap between the haves and the have-nots will widen and future reforms will be impossible to achieve.

Perhaps that is what is really behind secret Free Trade Agreements – a protection for the global corporations so entrenched that future Governments are unable to enact reforms even if they have the will to do so.

If you were a cynic, you would say that the protections that were once given to workers through industrial legislation, in order to create a level playing field, have been removed by stealth and handed over to global corporations who have a plan to make sure that they never lose these protections in the future.

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 31

The Echo

By Paul Saggers Kaitaki A Crew delegate Nelson Branch Vice President Farewell to one of the last New Zealand scows.

It was just going to be another changeover day on the rail ferry Kaitaki, when I was told by one of the stewards to go and have a look at what was being done to one of the last pieces of New Zealand maritime heritage and history in Port Marlborough.

One of my shipmates and I went up to the Kaitaki’s bridge for a view of a heinous and disrespectful act: a three prong grab on a digger being used to demolish the SS Echo, turning 2000 year Kauri wood into match sticks, with no respect, nor a care in the world.

No one around seemed to appreciate this piece of Kiwi maritime history. Her senior by 53 years, the Edwin Fox (built in India), sits with her bones showing on display in Picton with people paying to view her, but wasn’t even built in this country.

I spoke to a few younger people new to the industry about it, but they just looked at me and asked why I was worried about an old wooden boat as they call it.

The Marlborough harbour authorities had no respect for her nor what she meant to a lot of people.

Perhaps it was all about more money for marina berths. But one thing money will not buy is history and heritage – once it’s gone, it’s gone, and nothing can buy it back again.

I wrote an article published in the Maritimes around four years ago, about the first ship that other older members and I crewed on, the scow Te Aroha.

We tried to get some interest to keep her alive but since then, according to the latest Skipper magazine, she was at the bottom of Whangarei harbour, but was going to be raised and will die in dignity in her birth place among the mangrove swamps of Totara North.

The Te Aroha’s sister ship, the Portland, is in a very sad state in the Catlins on the Southland coast, and was advertised for sale on Trade Me for $5000 not very long ago.

We have little left of our of maritime heritage.

I feel lucky and privileged to be the owner/caretaker or kaitiaki of New Zealand’s oldest tug boat, the Romo.

She was owned by the Subritsky family for 75 years and was used to build the Auckland harbour bridge, alongside the W.C. Dalby.

32 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

But this article is sadly about a tangi: a eulogy for the Echo, a ship that was built here in New Zealand.

The Echo was built in 1905 at Te Kopuru near Dargaville by William Brown and Sons. She was one of New Zealand’s largest scows.

She was one of the first scows to have an engine installed. Scows were the heavy trucks of the day, and were an American idea, but took off in New Zealand because they could navigate shallow harbours, estuaries and rivers.

The Echo had large centre boards which could be lowered in lieu of a keel.

She was originally built for the timber trade on the Kaipara Harbour and also used to transport coal. She would ply between Wellington and Karamea, then carried meat in the Hawke’s Bay from Napier and Wairoa.

In 1920 she was purchased by Mr Charles Ekford of Blenheim and was based there for more than 45 years.

She crossed Cook Strait more than 15,000 times.

SS Echo carried any sort of cargo including motor cars and tractors on top of the hatches.

During the Second World War, the US armed forces requisitioned her for service in the Pacific, where she rescued many stranded air crews and troops.

She was thought to have helped track down two Japanese submarines and her story was told in “The Wackiest Ship in the Army”, starring Jack Lemmon and Ricky Nelson.

After the war, the Echo returned to the Cook Strait and continued service until 1965, but could not compete with the new rail ferries.

During her seagoing days, she was stranded on the Wairau Bar 15 times and damaged often, suffering three fires and seven collisions in her 110 year life.

One seaman was lost from her on the Kaipara Bar. My final thought on this piece of maritime history, is do we Kiwis want to kill the little heritage we have in this young country? Other nations seem to pass laws to protect their heritage.

Farewell SS Echo, you will always be remembered in old seamen’s hearts. Like people, old ships have souls.

The New Zealand Film Archive has a short 1959 documentary about the Echo which can be viewed on the internet at http://goo.gl/7wnCbB

www.munz.org.nz

The Echo

www.munz.org.nz

The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 33

As members of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Painters and Dockers fought for many health and safety issues and stood shoulder to shoulder alongside other maritime unions and were committed to the trade union movement.

Their militancy and improved conditions were acknowledged by the trade union movement.

However, they were certainly not applauded by the corporate world, the government or indeed the media.

The Costigan Commission

The Painters and Dockers

By Hector Thorpe Local 13 The Painters and Dockers were a rock band that formed in Melbourne in the 1980’s, whose album “Kiss my Art” and single “Die Yuppie Die” made the top of the Australian album charts.

Follow up albums included “Touch one touch all” and “Bucket”, with the hits “Kill Kill Kill,” “Love on your breath” and “Gun for fun.”

The band’s name was secured after playing at the Port Melbourne pub, frequented by members of the Federated Ship Painters’ and Dockers’ Union.

Often rock bands want a controversial band name, and at that time the Federated Ship Painters’ and Dockers’ Union was a controversial organisation, as portrayed by the media which hounded them and tried to link them to the criminal underbelly of Australian society.

Amalgamation The Federated Ships Painters’ and Dockers’ Union (FSPDU) was a struggle based maritime union dating back to the late 1890’s.

Initially, they were covered under local agreements as Balmain Labourers’ Union and Victoria Dockyard and Ships’ Labourers’ Union for example, doing the rough, tough, dirty and dangerous jobs relating to dockyard ship maintenance as low paid casuals.

However, by 1916, they strengthened their position by amalgamating into a national organisation.

The right thing Most unions feel they do the right thing for themselves and for society both locally and internationally. However, history books and classroom education do not often record the struggle of workers and their unions, formed through dangerous and difficult blue collar work, or from the small and close-knit nature of some professions which encouraged strong union organisation.

34 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

In 1980, the union was subject to the Costigan Commission (officially entitled the Royal Commission on the activities of the Federated Ship Painters’ and Dockers’ Union), enquiring into its claimed involvement with organised crime and tax evasion.

The Commission was seen by many as politically motivated in keeping with a long running anti-union agenda by the governing party of the day.

However, the Commission became famous because its investigations led to the airing of allegations of tax evasion and drug trafficking against Kerry Packer, then Australia’s richest man.

No charges were laid against Packer, and in 1987 Australia’s Attorney-General Lionel Bowen formally dismissed the allegations.

Mystery still surrounds, however, his receipt of a supposed “loan” of A$225,000 in cash from a bankrupt Queensland businessman. When questioned by the Commission, Packer testified, “I wanted it in cash because I like cash. I have a squirrel-like mentality.”

Packer was therefore codenamed the “Squirrel” in the Commission’s case studies.

A Royal Commission would later identify fifteen murders, twenty three attempted killings and dozens of other violent incidents, but despite these being linked attributed to the Painters and Dockers during the 1970’s, few men were ever prosecuted and even fewer were convicted.

Fighting on Due to the overseas outsourcing of dockyard repair and maintenance work, there was a decline in the industry and job opportunities for the union’s members.

With the introduction of the Industrial Relations Act 1988 that all unions of fewer than one thousand members must dissolve merge or amalgamate to maintain numbers above that level, as was to be later legislated in New Zealand, the FSPDU formally dissolved and was welcomed into the Seamen’s Union of Australia at a similar time as the Marine Cooks, Federated Stewards, and Professional Divers.

When the Waterside Workers’ Union also joined in 1993, they were renamed the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

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Health and safety is everyone’s responsibility.

If any health and safety incidents occur in your workplace, alert your branch officials and fill in the online incident form at www.munz.org.nz

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The Maritimes | Winter 2015 | 35

2016 INTERPORT SPORTS Wellington will be the host port for 2016. We welcome all participants from Sunday 7 February 2016 to Thursday 11 February 2016.

Golf Venue – Wainuiomata Golf Club.

Fishing – Sailing from Seaview Marina, Wellington Harbour.

Accommodation is available at Wellington Top 10 Holiday Park, 95 Hutt Park Road, Lower Hutt.

Reservations phone 0800 948 686 Email info@wellingtontop10.co.nz Website www.wellingtontop10.co.nz We recommend early bookings as the Wellington Sevens are being held on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February before Interport.

Entries must be in by 31 October 2015 and accompanied by the Tournament Fee. Golf fee $175.00 per head, Fishing fee $275.00 per head.

Postal Address for entries: Wellington Interport, c/o PO Box 27004, Wellington.

Contacts: Bradley Clifford Mobile 0211765928 Email bradleyclifford@msn.com John Whiting Mobile 021606379 Email john.whiting@munz.org.nz 36 | The Maritimes | Winter 2015

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