A stopwork meeting of Ports of Auckland workers today renewed calls for a change of leadership at their workplace.

Maritime Union members gathered from 7am this morning at Orakei Bowling Club to discuss the findings of the recent health and safety report into Ports of Auckland.

Maritime Union National Secretary Craig Harrison says the focus of the meeting was the death of two workers at the Ports since 2018 and how to fix health and safety.

Workers at the meeting voted unanimously they no longer had trust and confidence in the executive management and Board of the Ports of Auckland.

The Union was also demanding that it had union officials represented on the Health and Safety, and fatigue risk management Committees, and a Union representative on the Board.

Workers had been ignored and their concerns sidelined, and there had been terrible consequences, says Mr Harrison.

Mr Harrison says POAL Board Chair Bill Osborne was invited to attend via the Ports of Auckland, but there was no reply to the Union’s invitation.

The Maritime Union has been proactive in contacting management and Board to engage on health and safety, he says.

Mr Harrison says management, the Board and the Council are on notice that this issue was not going away.

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