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Picket line protest saves dockers’ jobs
9 January 2008
A picket line dispute in New Zealand has secured dockers their jobs, after a week-long dispute over plans to contract out stevedoring work ended in agreement.
The dispute saw members of the ITF-affiliated Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) go out on strike for a week last month in an effort to save some 25 permanent and 60 casual jobs. The jobs could have been at risk if plans by the Port of Napier to contract out stevedoring work had gone ahead. However, mediation between the union and the port company on the afternoon of 21 December led to an agreement, saving workers’ jobs. The deal followed a week-long long picket by Port of Napier dockers, which was boosted by the presence of seafarers and dockers from other ports.
MUNZ General Secretary Trevor Hanson claimed: “We wanted shipping companies to be able to use stevedores where secure local jobs could be achieved. Shipping companies wanted a solution, we supplied one, and the port is back in action.
“We’ve had our members out on the port gates for nearly a week, and there was a great sense of relief that these workers will have work tomorrow and into the future.”
The employees resumed work immediately and worked around the clock to clear the backlog.
Hanson stated that the defining moments of the dispute were the tenacity of the local workers who manned 24 hour pickets on the port gates, the support of other unions and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, and the massive global backing from the international labour movement including the Maritime Union of Australia and the ITF.
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