Maritime workers add voice to TPPA opposition
Wednesday 3 February 2015
The Maritime Union strongly opposes the TPPA, and is supporting the mass action against the signing of the secretive
trade deal in Auckland tomorrow (Thursday 4 February).
Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says union members have been campaigning for years
against so-called free trade deals that undermine democracy and contain an anti-worker agenda.
“The Maritime Union does not support free trade, we support fair trade that is regulated to ensure workers and the
environment are safe and secure,” he says.
He says that maritime workers around the Pacific had been strong opponents of so-called “free trade” deals such as the
TPPA.
“We work in an industry that is based on international trade, but we are part of the international movement to defend
workers from the negative aspects of corporate globalisation.”
Mr Fleetwood says the maritime industry was the world's first “globalized industry” and the effects of free trade and
deregulation had a devastating impact on New Zealand.
“We have seen extensive exploitation in the fishing industry, the sell off of public assets, and the collapse of New
Zealand shipping, together with the disease of casualization that has undermined security and safety on the waterfront,”
he says.
“These issues are all part of the same neoliberal agenda that is behind the TPPA which will hit working class New
Zealanders hard, while benefits accrue to a self interested minority.”
He says the Maritime Union is concerned that the TPPA could make it easier for New Zealand infrastructure such as ports
to be sold off to global corporations, and would undermine any attempt to rebuild New Zealand's coastal shipping.
“It's not hard to understand what the TPPA is about, it is about handing more power to privately owned corporations away
from workers and citizens.”
The Maritime Union says “TPPA – no way.”
ENDS