Port company firm, businesses make contingency plans for next five days
Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Lyttelton Port's chief executive Peter Davie may be overseas but he continues to lead negotiations as freight firms and businesses make plans to cope with a five-day strike running from March 21 to 25.
'The chief executive's presence overseas has not, and is not, causing any delays in the company's response. What is holding up settlement of the dispute is the Rail and Maritime Union's desire to achieve pay parity with the Maritime Union NZ without accepting the roster changes they accepted,' port operations manager Paul Monk said.
Manufacturers' Network chief executive Dieter Adam said some business owners were being forced to slow down production as they coped with schedules.
Car importer Andre Hopman said he had received several vehicles thanks to a ship arriving and unloading over the past weekend.
*** Lyttelton Port workers gear up to strike on Tuesday night
* Lyttelton port to lose more from shut down than paying docked wages
* Lyttelton strike deferred after last-chance talks yield progress**
However, McKay Shipping managing director Craig Harris said if cargo was unable to be landed at Lyttelton it would be taken off ships at Auckland or Tauranga.
Cargo would then either have to wait until shipping resumed or would have to be moved by rail or truck at extra cost to the importing company. Exports would have to wait in storage depots or factories, he said.
Leanne Watson, chief executive of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce said freight firms were working hard to rearrange cargos.
The costs of the strike may be difficult to quantify, and the port company may maintain dividends to Christchurch City Council by adjusting its debt levels.
Lyttelton Port's statement of intent for the 2018 financial year forecasts after-tax profit of $9 million on revenue of $118m. It may still reach this target because of higher cargo volumes due to the closed Kaikoura route in recent months.
Meanwhile, Rail and Maritime Union members will meet tomorrow at St Mary's Church to decide further public action, and later in the week will hold a rally at Lyttelton where local band The Eastern is due to play.
One reason for the discord is the divided workforce represented by two unions, creating contrasts in wages and conditions.
The situation evolved during the 1980s when several seafaring and wharf working unions merged into two main groups.
The Maritime Union NZ workers at Lyttelton settled their collective agreement last year, but the port company has yet to strike a deal with Rail and Maritime Union members who want the same pay as their counterparts, which equates to a 4 per cent wage increase.
Lyttelton Port operations manager Monk said the striking Rail and Maritime Union workers refused to accept roster changes like the Maritime Union workers did.
'For this reason, we dropped our request for them to make any roster changes. We have offered them a salary rise of 3 per cent a year each year for three years. We are faced with a union that will not budge on any of its demands.
'Rail and Maritime Union claims there's a safety issue associated with the new roster. Maritime Union members have had no safety issues since they took it on. They're fine with it,' Monk said.
However, Rail and Maritime Union organiser John Kerr said the new rosters for the other union had proved impractical to implement and they increased risks of accidents.
Kerr said his members had been prepared to compromise on several issues and had offered eight negotatiable options but the port company refused to budge on any of them.
'The port company is prepared to take a hit themselves with cavalier disregard for the wider Canterbury business community. They used to call unions dinosaurs so it's ironic this is how the port is behaving. They haven't moved their position since March 3,' Kerr said.