Lyttelton Report

GARY HORAN LYTTELTON BRANCH SECRETARY

Lyttelton and Timaru Branches have agreed to amalgamate.

National Secretary Craig Harrison and six reps from the Lyttelton Branch visited Timaru on Monday 31 October and met with the executive and members of the Timaru branch.

The Lyttelton reps introduced themselves and explained the Lyttelton branch position on the proposed amalgamation.

The Lyttelton reps answered any questions put to them by the Timaru members then left the room so the Timaru branch members could openly discuss the proposal.

After a 20 minute break the Lyttelton members were asked back into the room and were informed that the Timaru branch members present had voted unanimously to join Lyttelton.

How does it work? Timaru will maintain its autonomy and have representation at National Council meetings.

Lyttelton will look after the day to day running of the branch and keep a separate bank account for the Timaru finances. All operating costs regarding Timaru will come from this account.

The Lyttelton branch holiday homes will be made available to Timaru members.

Lyttelton executive members will travel to Timaru monthly for meetings and any issues that crop up, and hold full branch meetings bi-monthly.

SSA talks had only just begun when the agreement was signed in Tauranga with ISO and MUNZ. Because this will have an effect on bargaining for conditions and pay rises, we have suspended talks and will reconvene when the situation is clearer.

LPC are still recruiting staff and our numbers are growing there.

We have members in all areas of the port now and the brand we are offering seems to be resonating with new employees at LPC.

We are initiating bargaining for the Logistics officers shortly and for the whole company in early January 2023.

The High Performance/High Engagement meetings are being reassessed and hopefully will become more productive next year.

The cruise ship season has begun, and the port is very busy on a regular basis now. There are over 100 vessels due this season.

Hopefully at the time of reading this Collective Agreement will be ratified and the members there will be enjoying a 14.5% pay rise.

The members here have been underpaid for a long time and were due a significant pay rise.

Annie McCauley and George have been reconfirmed as our seafarer reps and do a great job. It’s good to see some more tonnage on the coast after the loss of our tanker fleet. Now we just have to get some training underway to put Kiwi’s up the gangway on these ships.

We are having our Christmas function on Saturday 17 December at the Loons Club from 4pm.

The over 60’s Xmas function is at the Top Club on 2 December from 4pm.

The holiday homes are booking up for summer, and we are getting heavy bookings on the Australian property with all of 2023 booked.

We are doing upgrades in Hanmer and Akaroa so please support these properties.

Our accommodation unit is also ticking over nicely.

We were proud to support a food bank benefit concert put on by local band The Eastern at the Richmond Community Gardens to commemorate Labour Day, and myself and several delegates attended. There were speeches by us and several unions present about the meaning of Labour Day, the history of unions in New Zealand and the upcoming challenges we will all face.

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

SHANAYA HUNTER NATIONAL YOUTH REP

I have recently stepped down from my local Lyttelton role as youth rep. I have held a seat on the Lyttelton Branch Executive for the last four years and really want to push some new young activists through our executive in the hope that they learn everything I have had the privilege to learn.

Over the last few years I started our local Facebook page as another means to letting our members know when and where our meetings will be held. I try to put as much information up as possible so they know what meetings we attend with management and topics discussed. This means transparency about what we are doing with our time in our elected positions.

I try to advertise our branch functions in advance to help spread the word, and to get our membership down to these local events. This is our union!

Recently I started a chat group for a few group champions from every container terminal cargo handling group. This is so we can share information between our four full time groups and two part time relief pool groups. Then we can make informed decisions prior to our stopwork meetings when our company puts forward bullshit proposals, and we can tell them to shove their reduced manning levels.

The guys and girls in this group are also responsible for getting as many from their groups to stopwork meetings as possible and we had a wicked 106 members turn up to our last meeting.

They will also be participating in our new organiser’s training in December. National organizer Graham McKean has worked hard to put together training for our delegates which has been a long time coming for the branches. So say hello, introduce yourselves and get involved.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been on the last two negotiating committees and to have been a part of winning back ordering times, that used to be 2100 for a 2nd shift and 2300 for a 3rd shift on the previous day. Us PRP’s couldn’t plan our lives, make childcare arrangements or other income measures because we were owned by the port company! We were available 24/7 and could have our shift cancelled 18 hours before it started. To win something back is rare, but it happened.

I’ve learned that I don’t need to be on the executive to be an active member. I will still be in the background giving these guys the support when they want it. We have had at least 6 young stevedores put their hands up to get involved in the running of our local branch and I can’t wait to see them hit the ground running! Congratulations to those recently elected by your peers. I want to thank my local branch and its members for keeping me honest, keeping me on my toes and for everything I’ve learned in my last two terms. Let’s help our newest reps carry the torch, they need our support to do their job. They are our voice.