More unions buy A.P. Moller-Maersk to be able to attend shareholder meeting

19 April 2007

For two years, the American transport union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has attended the shareholder meeting of A. P. Moller-Maersk in Copenhagen due to its ownership of a Maersk share. Both times, representatives of Teamsters have criticised the policies of the company. Now other unions get the possibility to participate in the annual meeting. FNV, the largest Dutch trade union federation, has bought it’s own share in Maersk.

Change of attitude
It has been difficult to get a real dialogue with Maersk the last couple of years on an international level. They haven’t been willing to sit down and discus issues with the union movement. "But if Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed", Niek Stam, coordinator of the dockers section in FNV says.

He thinks that the company is changing it’s attitude, though. "Maersk is a big player in the world and tend to have an arrogant attitude towards unions. But recently they have opened up a little", Niek Stam says. FNV sees space for improvement in A.P. Moller-Maersk's policies in the Netherlands:

Aussies buy share too
Maersk is very centrally governed. It is often impossible to really negotiate with the management in Rotterdam, because they have to call Copenhagen all the time to get their mandate right. The culture in countries differs, and we could wish, that Maersk was a bit more flexible, Niek Stam says.

The maritime Union of Australia, MUA, recently bought a Maersk share, too.