Brother Richard Mead,
Many thanks for your encouraging e-mail, I am sorry we only received this today as we flew down to Bluff to attend the picket.
Things are very severe at the moment with barbed wire holding the picketers off the wharf and busloads of police ensuring that work continues. The fight will continue at the next port of call Port Chalmers.
If we lose, the attempts by Mainland Stevedores to casualise the permanent jobs at South Island ports will be the death knell of those small communities.
The Company behind Mainland, Carter Holt Harvey, one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest forest product companies is bringing in carpetbaggers from the North Island port of Mt Maunganui. This not only threatens local permanent jobs, but also the families of those Waterfront workers and the local community. It’s absolutely deplorable that a huge Co. like Carter Holt Harvey can do this to small communities.
The NZ Council of Trade Unions, which represents the majority of the NZ workers, met this week and condemned Carter Holt’s actions, it further called on all affiliates to support both the Bluff and Port Chalmers branches of the NZWWU in their attempts to retain traditional work.
Let me background the dispute for you, as briefly as I can.
International Stevedores Ltd (ISO) was a non-union Co. set up in 1992 using scabs to take waterfront jobs. There have been many battles over the last 8 years with pickets, arrests, and dog fights which has seen ISO mainly confined to Mt Maunganui where it contests the work of our branch members.
Following new Industrial legislation in NZ in October 2000. Anyone with 15 people can form a union. ISO set up the Amalgamated Stevedores Union (ASU) and many other companies sponsored unions have sprung up around NZ. So legally at least ISO have legitimised it’s scabs in terms of the Act. Not however in the eyes of NZ Waterfront Workers Union, or the NZ Council of Trade Unions.
ISO then set up Mainland Stevedores to operate in the South Island. ISO owns 100% of the company set up to dodge the stigma of ISO. It then advertised throughout the South Island for people to fill casual positions on the Waterfront.
The first ship, currently working is the Eastern Forest which is controlled by Wallem Shipmanagement Ltd (Hong Kong). When we approached them to change their Stevedoring Co. they said that they do not appoint Stevedores as the ship was on bare bout charter to LASCO shipping of Portland, Oregan.
Wallem’s advised LSO that we had contacted them, and they then had a right wing politician raise the matter in the House of Parliament with little success.
Our preparations, which included a letter to every household in Bluff, and community opposition saw the ship put to sea and sit off Stewart Island for four days. During this time the barbed wire was erected and extra police flown in.
A meeting was arranged with the New Zealand Waterfront Workers Union, the ISO workers (who had been flown in from Mt Maunganui on a chartered flight), the local Member of Parliament Mark Peck, and the local Mayor Tim Shadbolt. This mediation meeting was called for 2pm Monday 20th November 2000 with all parties agreeing they would attend. The NZWWU, the Mayor, and the MP all turned up to find ISO, or Mainland, had used the meeting as a ruse to begin work.
It must have been planned that way as 35 police were present, having had to travel the 30 mins from Invercargill. The MP Mark Peck was furious having flown from Wellington to mediate between the parties, and will raise the matter with the Government.
Meantime the picket is in place, it will be even bigger in Port Chalmers in a few days time, and Mainland have advised that they intend to extend their operations to Timaru, Lyttelton, and Nelson, so the fight will be a long protracted one.
The NZWWU intends to turn up the heat on Carter Holt Harvey. The attack on the NZ Waterfront Workers jobs, their families and communities can only be successful while the big Co’s like Carter Holt Harvey and LASCO target Waterfront Workers and try to casualise their jobs to scabs.
The NZ Waterfront Workers Union thank you for your support which is greatly appreciated and any assistance you may be able to give in regard to expressions to the LASCO Shipping Co.
Yours Fraternally,
Terry Ryan
Assist. Gen. Secretary
