Ports of Auckland is set to proceed with a proposal to contract out its labour force, as continuing negotiations with the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) fail to find resolution.
A counter offer tabled on Jan. 6 by MUNZ was rejected by Ports of Auckland, with chief executive Tony Gibson saying in a media statement that the union’s proposal "failed to deliver the rapid improvements needed in work practices and productivity”.
Gibson said he expected the majority of affected employees to continue working at the port though most likely employed by a contractor if the proposed changes go ahead.
With the port having recently lost Maersk shipping and Fonterra Cooperative Group to Port of Tauranga, Gibson says the situation has changed dramatically and Auckland is making plans for redundancies as a result of the loss of business.
“We’ve run out of time. Without rapid changes towards substantially more efficient labour practices, more customers and more jobs will be lost in the coming weeks,” Gibson said.
The most recent port offer included a 10 percent rise in hourly rates, performance bonuses of up to 20 percent, and the retention of existing benefits and entitlements in return for a new roster system it says will provide increased operational flexibility.
The MUNZ website says that of the issues being disputed, the roster is the main concern, with a belief that the flexible roster will result in less hours and subsequently less pay.
“The union position is clear. It does not want the 10 percent - it wants secure ordered and transparent rosters”.
Union workers are preparing for a 48 hour strike beginning at 11pm tonight – the fifth staged since November.
Three ships have been affected by the strikes, with one bypassing, one being serviced at the ports’ multi-cargo wharf, and the third delayed by approximately eight hours.
(BusinessDesk)
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“Well, it's like this, Miss Taggart,” said the delegate of the Union of Locomotive Engineers. “I don't think we're going to allow you to run that train.”
Dagny sat at her battered desk, against the blotched wall of her office.
She said, without moving, “Get out of here.”
It was a sentence the man had never heard in the polished offices of railroad executives. He looked bewildered. “I came to tell you—”
“If you have anything to say to me, start over again.”
“What?”
“Don't tell me what you're going to allow me to do.”
“Well, I meant we're not going to allow our men to run your train.”
“That's different.”
“Well, that's what we've decided.”
“Who's decided it?”
"The committee. What you're doing is a violation of human rights.
You can't force men to go out to get killed—when that bridge collapses —just to make money for you."
She reached for a sheet of blank paper and handed it to him. “Put it down in writing,” she said, “and we'll sign a contract to that effect.”
“What contract?”
“That no member of your union will ever be employed to run an engine on the John Galt Line.”
“Why . . . wait a minute . . . I haven't said—”
“You don't want to sign such a contract?”
-No, I—"
“Why not, since you know that the bridge is going to collapse?”
“I only want—”
"I know what you want. You want a stranglehold on your men by means of the jobs which I give them—and on me, by means of your men. You want me to provide the jobs, and you want to make it impossible for me to have any jobs to provide. Now I'll give you a choice.
That train is going to be run. You have no choice about that. But you can choose whether it's going to be run by one of your men or not. If you choose not to let them, the train will still run, if I have to drive the engine myself. Then, if the bridge collapses, there won't be any railroad left in existence, anyway. But if it doesn't collapse, no member of your union will ever get a job on the John Galt Line. If you think that I need your men more than they need me, choose accordingly. If you know that I can run an engine, but they can't build a railroad, choose according to that. Now are you going to forbid your men to run that train?"
"I didn't say we'd forbid it. I haven't said anything about forbidding.
But . . . but you can't force men to risk their lives on something nobody's ever tried before."
“I'm not going to force anyone to take that run.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I'm going to ask for a volunteer.”
“And if none of them volunteers?”
“Then it will be my problem, not yours.”
“Well, let me tell you that I'm going to advise them to refuse.”
“Go ahead. Advise them anything you wish. Tell them whatever, you like. But leave the choice to them. Don't try to forbid it.”
The notice that appeared in every roundhouse of the Taggart system was signed “Edwin Willers, Vice-President in Charge of Operation.” It asked engineers, who were willing to drive the first train on the John Galt Line, so to inform the office of Mr. Willers., not later than eleven A.M. of July 15.
It was a quarter of eleven, on the morning of the fifteenth, when the telephone rang in her office. It was Eddie, calling from high up in the Taggart Building outside her window. “Dagny, I think you'd better come over.” His voice sounded queer.
She hurried across the street, then down the marble-floored halls, to the door that still carried the name “Dagny Taggart” on its glass panel.
She pulled the door open.
The anteroom of the office was full. Men stood jammed among the desks, against the walls. As she entered, they took their hats off in sudden silence. She saw the graying heads, the muscular shoulders, she saw the smiling faces of her staff at their desks and the face of Eddie Willers at the end of the room. Everybody knew that nothing had to be said.
dunno what your point is ?
"I know what you want, union man. You want a stranglehold on your men by means of the jobs which I give them—and on me, by means of your men. You want me to provide the jobs, and you want to make it impossible for me to have any jobs to provide.
Yeah exactly....12% return! good luck with that....
Ports of Tauranga and Napier use same Union....same sort of working conditions but are efficient. But of course that has nothing to do with good management. Modern managers need to take responsibility for the amateur way they view business. A company is simply a group of people co-operating to a common goal. Blaming a Union for poor relations with your workmates is childish....and counterproductive.
Who wants to be on call casual labour. Think about the consequenses of this, a national workforce on call casual....there is no way we will built a wealthy healthy society heading down this one way street.
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