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The Transport Worker June 2012
14
neWs
Some clear messages from
this year's Ports Forum
A
mixture of RMTU
delegates and
observers from
around NZ’s ports attended
the 2012 Ports
Forum on March 14-15 in
Wellington. For a number
of RMTU members this
was their first Forum. It
was ably chaired by recently
elected president
Aubrey Wilkinson, from
Port of Tauranga.
Peter Conway CTU
who delivered the opening
address and spoke on the dispute at
Ports of Auckland (POA) describing the
situation as a collision between a board
and management who want to completely
dictate to their workers and their union
which they wanted to get rid of. He said this
was “sadly familiar territory” with a National
Government and its expected agenda of attacks
on workers, beneficiaries and unions
while giving their rich mates tax cuts and
privatisation opportunities. His final message
was crystal clear: “When worker rights
are under attack – stand up and fight back.”
Aubrey Wilkinson
National derided
President of the CTU Helen Kelly spoke
in depth about the POA dispute and other
issues facing New Zealand workers. She derided
National’s propaganda that “workers
ought to be grateful to have a job”.
CTU economist Bill
Rosenburg spoke about the
recent work of the Productivity
Commission – a group
brought together by the National
Government to look
at the future of international
freight and transport services.
Ports and airports are its main
focus with ship rates a significant
problem. He said NZ is
getting ripped off by international
shipping companies
playing ports off against each
other to drive down prices.
Very little of this is mentioned let alone
analysed in the Commission’s papers.
RMTU’s newly appointed Health and
Safety organiser Karen Fletcher presented a
case study from Port of Tauranga where delegates
discovered that the
capacity for H&S internally
was very high. The downside
of this is that POT H&S
is dominated by contractors
on site to the detriment
of direct employees which
has hindered development
of the overall H&S culture
and safe practices. The significant
question that arose
was:
How can an employer
have a H&S approach that
does not directly involve
Denise Roache
the workers? You can’t have a H&S policy
and coverage without all parties affected
being involved.
RMTU Organisers John Kerr and Phil
Spanswick ran a workshop titled ‘Waterfront
Organising Campaign’ which covered
the history of organised labour and unionism
on the NZ waterfront and a history
on non-unionised labour. They also took
delegates through
n Planning a recruitment and organising
campaign.
n Recruitment techniques.
n Building a strong delegate structure in
your workplace.
The message is clear: We must fight to
organise labour into legitimate unions on
the NZ waterfront.
Labour spokesperson on transport Phil
Twyford, reiterated his party’s commitment
to reintroduce cabotage
– though he wouldn’t say
how soon after gaining
power. This merely confirms
that if we are to effect
change through the
political process we have
to continue to lobby hard.
Labour are our friends but
we still have to work hard
to make sure our issues are
high on their agenda.
He also gave Labour’s
view of the so called ‘Productivity
Commission’.
Howard Phillips. Dave Marden. Mike Nijssen. Te Ra Poroa.