The great port stand-off
January 13th, 2012 at 1:02 pm by David FarrarIn my column at the NZ Herald. I start by saying:
The industrial action at the Ports of Auckland has reached the point, when a compromise solution is about as likely as there being a compromise solution over the Falkland Islands.
Instead, like the Falkland Islands, there will be a war, and there will be a winner and a loser. There will also be the significant possibility of casualties from other parties.
The two combatants are the Ports of Auckland (POAL) management team led by Field Marshall Toby Gibson and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) led by Generalissimus Garry Parsloe.
The stakes are high for both sides. The losing side will be humiliated and powerless.
I also look at who else faces being dragged onto this war.
Related posts:
- Port of Auckland to contract out workforce
- Well done Len
- Q+A 11 March 2012
- The truth on Port of Tauranga
January 13th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
The company will get their productivity improvements which the Union seems determined to resist. The alternative is for the company to go out of business which seems unthinkable. I will be happy to see the dreadful old eyesore out of central Auckland.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Yes poor old Trotts has pushed the panic button and called for all out war. The nasty evil right seek to destroy all that is holy and wholesome that comes with unionism and ultimately socialism, evil bastards. Calling for the unions to unite and the occupy Auckland crowd to do something useful like camping at the wharfs. Fools like Trotter are relics of the past, it’s not the right destroying their way of life it’s their own greed, living life in total denial with what’s happening in the world today and a longing for some type of class warfare where they portray themselves as the underdog. Carry on fools, they shall be the instruments of their own demise.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
I posted this excerpt from today’s Herald on the ‘Labour and MUNZ’ thread. Still think it’s quite funny:
‘Last night, the union released a “labour strategy” by the ports management, which Mr Parsloe said showed the company intended to contract out the workforce to private contractors before collective agreement negotiations began last year.
“There was never any intention to genuinely negotiate or mediate, there has just been public relations spin and an extreme anti-worker agenda,” Mr Parsloe said.
A Ports spokeswoman said the document was a draft, never represented company policy, and the author had been made redundant.
Mr Gibson had been committed to collective bargaining with no pre-determined plan to contract out the union workforce, she said.’
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Lets hope POAL torpedoes MUNZ and sends it to the bottom of the sea.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
There was enormous compromise over the Falkland Islands; Margaret Thatcher said “piss off back home you spic wankers and I will not slaughter you” and the Argies agreed. Perfect compromise.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
DPF says: “The two combatants are the Ports of Auckland (POAL) management team led by Field Marshall Toby Gibson and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) led by Generalissimus Garry Parsloe.”
Yup – and the Maritime Union is the General Belgrano!
Bwahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
From experience as a one time contractor at POAL, the infrastructure and work practices are in a bad need of refurbishment and upgrading. The place is run down in some area’s, there are some old sheds there that need demolishing and the time has come to move forward and make some very big changes.
Vote:As intimated by Brian Gaynor the company has been poorly run and bears a striking resemblance to Rail in Auckland prior to the sell off, so a clean sweep is in order.
The change required will affect staff and the companies operations including plant and assets.
January 13th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Elaycee 2:04 pm. Damm, you beat me to the draw. How about this then? MUNZ is Don Quixote, and POAL is the windmill.
As for world wide industrial retaliation. I think that’s a spectre from the 70s and 80s. Things have changed a lot since then. If it’s bad for the left, it’s good for NZ.
cheers
David Prosser
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
MIke Lee has suggested that POL and Port of Tauranga combine to set prices so that shipping Companies pay more and wharfies get paid more. Just where do these lefties get off? Even if it were not for the fact that forming such a cartel is illegal everybody in export/import knows that all such charges are passed on to the users of shipping and their customers. Wharf fees for exporters are already excessive.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
A great example of the insularity, circularity (if there is such a word) and lack of critical depth of the of the NZ media – we are treated to the boss of Kiwi Blog fanning the flames of this dispute, with several posts dismissing the union’s points, and then the originator of what I would consider to be these provocative taunts then gets to write an article in the national media about how the point of compromise has gone, and that a war is inevitable, but wait! he then gets to blog about it as well!
One would be tempted to think that this industrial action was being used as an opportunity to ‘stick it’ to the union movement, while the going is good, but I can’t help but feel that underneath all this disingenuous tub-thumping, there are real people with real families to feed who are going to suffer while others gleefully predict their heartbreak and economic ruination.
Shameful. And before you go onto the ‘well no-one forces you to read KiwiBlog line.’ I’ve elected to boycott this shoddy blog.
So that’s that then.
Bye.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Good riddance to Lee C.
Vote:He says “…with several posts dismissing the union’s points.”
What “points”? The union doesn’t have any bloody “points”. They’re simply out to protect a bunch of 50′s-era greedy, lazy, rich pricks.
Given that Labour are in bed with the unions, this strike will have been a godsend to the Nats. When the 2014 election rolls around, people will remember the strike and they will remember that when the unions tell a Labour government to “jump”, the government will meekly say “how high?”
I hope like hell that every single one of the striking wharfie pricks lose their jobs.
January 13th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Fantastic stuff LeeC 17:30.
Not only do I hope you keep your word on this (I’m sure a friendly right-winger will explain the concept to you) but I beg you, on the way out please take the rest of the left wing nutters with you.
We’ll happily throw the blog idiot in with them.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Just in case some of you are a little unsure about what Lee C was trying to say I will clear it up for you.
Lee C is leaving because he is pissed off that DPF and others have called the unions bluff, no longer can union scum tell lies and have the MSM report those lies as ‘fact’.
Lee C is not able to handle the truth, so, in a fit of temper he has taken his ball and pissed off home.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Ports of Auckland spends $55 on labour for every container while Tauranga is estimated to spend $10 less – which if Auckland could match would see them save $6 million each year, the ‘leaked’ document says.
Container volumes at Auckland rose by 3 per cent, or 27,015, to 894,383 twenty-foot equivalent units, making it the country’s biggest container port ahead of Tauranga, which handled 590,506 TEUs in its latest year.
Vote:POAL cut the guts out of the price several years ago to get the Fonterra work so POPAL will be hurting and hiding the fact with some other lucrative part of their income.
January 13th, 2012 at 9:38 pm
@Lee C says: “So that’s that then. Bye.”
Well, thats good news. So as you pack your bongos, please round up a few of the leftard morons to take with you – ta. You won’t be missed.
Be sure you don’t let the door smack your arse on the way out.
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
My folks reckon they remember way back when, when the ports went on strike that the then Prime Minister (they weren’t sure if it was Holyoake) fired all the port workers and brought in the army to do the job for a while…
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
@Fletch: Your folks may have been talking about 1951 – the PM at the time (National’s Sid Holland) ordered the military to do the work on the wharves. It had the desired effect – the wharfies capitulated and threw in the towel after striking for 151 days.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/troops-used-on-ports-as-waterside-dispute-worsens
Vote:January 13th, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Elaycee, thanks. That must what they were talking about. Interesting.
Vote: