Jurassic Park; MUNZ Edition

Matt McCarten strikes up a rallying cry on behalf of the striking MUNZ members at the Ports of Auckland; he opines:

The Ports of Auckland chief executive and his directors have started the final phase of the war they've been planning for a long time. They want to sack their workforce and replace them with cheap casual labour. Like any self-respecting Kiwis with spines, they told their executioners to shove it and have hit the picket lines indefinitely.

This dispute isn't about the privileges of the wharfies. Their negotiators have already agreed with just about every claim the boss has demanded. Their main request is that they keep a third of their jobs full-time and get a 2.5 per cent wage increase.

Their boss will never agree. That's because the real agenda is about readying the port for privatisation. To facilitate that, they need to slash costs and provide a cheap, compliant workforce. The union stands in their way and must be destroyed.

We've heard this argument over and over again from the Left; but repeating something doesn't actually make it true. The employer is actually wanting workers to work at the times they are needed in order to perform their work, and doesn't want to pay staff who are not actually working. As an employer, we see that as a fundamental negotiating point.

That's why David Shearer has to date stayed out of this dispute. He's smart enough to know that MUNZ is fighting a losing battle. We note however that Labour's fourth-ranked MP Jacinda Ardern was tweeting about her presence on the picket lines yesterday, so Mr Shearer might want to watch his back.

Jacinda Ardern ‏ @jacindaardern

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Off to Teal Park to support the wharfies. Come join if you're in the city

We've been union members, as recently as six or seven years ago. And oddly, we always felt that a union's prime role was to PROTECT the jobs of its members. But MUNZ seems to have chosen (at non-secret ballots) to embark on a collision course with PoAL which is going to result in wholesale job losses. Of course MUNZ will be able to claim matyrdom status for the redundant workers, but has the union contemplated the downstream effects? We doubt it.

MUNZ is a dinosaur union playing a very poor game. Its members should rightfully feel aggrieved that the union has done nothing but alienate likely supporters, except the likes of McCarten. Surely, when even the Labour Party will not publicly back a union which has made significant donations to the party, you know that MUNZ's position is untenable.

Jurassic Park; Munz Edition; now playing at a picket line in Auckland.