Maritime Union says strike for permanent and secure jobs "just the beginning"

The Maritime Union has swung its national support behind its Auckland
Waterfront Branch in their dispute with Ports of Auckland on the status of
part-time and casual workers.
Maritime Union General Secretary Trevor Hanson says that the fight for
secure and permanent jobs remains the number one priority for the union.

"Casualisation has worked like a cancer spreading though our industry, and
we can no longer stand by and watch secure jobs be replaced by the
insecurity of casual jobs. The Auckland strike is just the beginning and has
the complete and unconditional backing of maritime workers throughout New
Zealand."

Mr Hanson says that some waterfront workers in New Zealand have spent over
10 years as casual workers in the same port, a situation that he describes
as obscene and economically regressive in a nation with growing maritime
trade.

"The Maritime Union will increase the pressure through industrial means on
any employer who treats workers as a disposable commodity rather than as
human beings."

Maritime Union Auckland Waterfront Branch President Denis Carlisle says the
branch issued a 14-day strike notice on Wednesday 25 August after the Ports
of Auckland refused to back a fair and open process for moving casual staff
into secure, permanent positions.

"Unless the Port gets its act together, we have 260 members ready to shut
down the wharves for four days starting 7am, Wednesday 8 September," says Mr
Carlisle.

He says the union simply wants to ensure all workers can move through an
agreed process into secure, permanent jobs as permanent workers retire and
trade grows.

"Casualisation is wrecking the lives of workers. There is no ability to plan
your financial future, your family time or even have a personal life when
you are on call and have no secure hours of work," says Mr Carlisle.

Mr Hanson says successive Governments and their agencies had been aware of
casualisation problems on the waterfront since 1991 and despite efforts by the union to work through the problems with Government and employers, the situation had only worsened and industrial action had become inevitable.