OCEANIA

Union reacts to Auckland outsourcing

16 years ago

An announcement that Ports of Auckland is investigating outsourcing parts of its stevedoring operation to third-party contractors has drawn a “not this century” response from a stopwork meeting of about 150 Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) members.

The port says external contractors could provide additional flexibility to better accommodate peaks and troughs in demand caused by increased hubbing of international callers at Auckland and “extra-loader” visitors.

However, MUNZ says such flexibility already exists in the current collective employment agreement and believes the port is seeking to undermine future permanent wages and conditions.