Off switch pressed on Ports of Auckland automation

The Maritime Union says its longstanding opposition to automation at the Ports of Auckland has been vindicated after the project was canned.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says the decision announced in June 2022 by Ports of Auckland to cancel its automation project was the right call.

Mr Harrison says a full report into how poor decisions were made by previous management was now required.

He says the automation project had been unusual and high risk for a port of Auckland’s size, and should never have been approved at the governance level.

The project suffered ongoing delays, technical issues and cost over-runs, and had contributed to the serious congestion issues at the Ports in the last two years. There were a series of malfunctions as the automation project dragged on years over schedule.

Industry figures suggested that one of the issues with the high cost, high risk project was the scale of the Ports. Most automated ports around the world are far larger than Auckland.

The hybrid automated/manual nature of the straddles at POAL meant that an experimental zone for the automated units was set up in a congested working port already under major space constraints.

The automated straddles operated in the container yard but manual straddles continued to service the shipside vessel cranes.

Mr Harrison says the automation project is another negative outcome from the reign of former CEO Tony Gibson, who departed suddenly last year.

POAL and Mr Gibson are facing health and safety charges laid by Maritime New Zealand following the 2020 death of port worker Pala’amo Kalati.

Mr Harrison says the new Board and new CEO at POAL have shown a new positive attitude to engaging with the Union, which has led to an improving culture.

“Our focus now is on ensuring a productive, skilled, safe union workforce is allowed to get on with their job.”

Mr Harrison says the Maritime Union wants to see worker representation on the Board to ensure the future success of the Ports.

“Worker representation at board level would provide the real world expertise of workers in many areas such as health and safety, and is standard practice in many successful European economies.”

The news that the project had been dumped sent shockwaves around the business and political establishment. There have been a range of figures suggested for the cost of the failed automation project.

Auckland City councillor Chris Darby says the failed project probably cost close to half a billion dollars once delays, disruption and lost customers and ships were taken into account. It’s a ballpark figure that other industry sources have agreed with.

The Port Company says the loss is around $65 million, but this does not take into account expected costs such as the retrofitting of the automated Kone straddle carriers for manual operation.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has called for an independent review to determine who was culpable for the port’s former board’s decision to fund the project.

He told media he was concerned that the former chief executive and board did not do sufficient due diligence to determine how risks would be managed before committing to significant capital expenditure.

Ports of Auckland board chairperson Jan Dawson says the decision to scrap the automation project was done in the best interests of the company, its stakeholders, and the New Zealand supply chain.

Maritime Union of New Zealand Auckland branch secretary Russell Mayn told media many Auckland port workers were concerned the automation system would cause a serious accident.

“Given the number of incidents and issues with the automated machines, the decision to end the programme removes the chance of a serious accident.”

The automation project was the centrepiece of the ill-fated decade-long reign of former CEO Tony Gibson, who led persistent attacks on the unionized workforce.

There had been four deaths at the Ports of Auckland since 2017, three involving POAL staff during the tenure of Mr Gibson.

In August 2021, Mr Gibson was charged over the death of Pala’amo (Amo) Kalati on 30 August 2020.

In the last three months of 2021 there was 12 lost-time injuries at the port – injuries that led to time off work.

The Maritime Union has continually drawn attention to the links between productivity ‘bonuses’ under the previous management at POAL and the potential for health and safety risks when speed is prioritized over safety.