Auckland residents and businesses will be mortified by Port

Media Release: Maritime Union of New Zealand
Friday March 23, 2012

Auckland residents and businesses will be mortified with lack of plan to get Port moving again

Auckland residents and businesses will be mortified to learn the Ports may only be functioning properly for a week before Ports management shut it down again.

Ports management this morning told the Maritime Union that their intention is that none of the 292 wharfies covered by the collective agreement will have any work until next Friday March 30th at the earliest.

The company has said they’ve asked their shift allocators to then ‘look out’ for shifts for the workers from next Friday onwards.

The Port will then attempt to lock the workers out from April 6th.

“Aucklanders should be angry that Ports management has no clear plan in place to get the Ports up and running as quickly as possible again,” Garry Parsloe said.

“When the company put on ice their plan to dismiss its workforce and contract out the jobs, and agree to return to complete the negotiations, Ports workers were able to immediately end their strike action.”

“The wharfies are ready to get this Port up and running again for Auckland. We need ships back in, and stock moved.”

“The company are coming up with excuse after excuse about why they can’t get Auckland’s Port fully functioning again. The latest rosters debacle is another sideshow.”

The Maritime Union has today filed an injunction to declare the lockout unlawful, Garry Parsloe said.

Ends.

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