By Tony Field
The Ports of Auckland has upped the ante in its industrial dispute with the New Zealand Maritime Union.
It says although it will continue negotiations with the union it is going to go ahead with a proposal to contract out more than 300 jobs.
Relations between the managers of the Auckland port and the Maritime Union were already at a low point this morning but got even worse as the day unfolded.
This morning union boss Garry Parsloe confirmed his members would go ahead with another 48 hour strike, saying that any move to “casualise” the work force would destroy job security.
“If you casualise the whole port, or have too much flexibility then the family suffers for that,” says Mr Parsloe. “You don’t know whether you are working or not working, you are waiting by a phone and it undermines family values.”
This afternoon the port’s chief executive Tony Gibson announced the company would proceed with plans to contact out its entire workforce.
“What we want to do is bring competition and have several providers of labour,” he said.
The Auckland Council-owned port has lost two major customers, Maersk and Fonterra, and Mayor Len Brown has been urging the two sides to sort out their differences.
“My view is that the collective is the way forward in the present scenario,” he says.
Mr Gibson says Southern Star has moved $20 million, saying “we need change, we need to change now”.
The port will brief workers on its plans tomorrow.
The port company says if it does go ahead and contract out the jobs it will try to offer work to the existing staff but it is inevitable there will be redundancies.
Mediation is supposed to resume on Thursday after the two day strike finishes.
3 News