Port faces more industrial action

Lyttelton Port members of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union have given 14 days’ notice of further strike action beginning on April 20 for five days.

‘‘Our members voted on this before Easter, but we held off issuing further strike notices in the hope the company would alter their approach to the negotiations,’’ said John Kerr, the union’s South Island organiser. ‘‘Unfortunately that hasn’t happened.’’

Lyttelton Port chief executive Peter Davie said the cost of the union offer remained far too high.

‘‘The sticking point is that the RMTU want the same 4 per cent salary increase in the first year that their workmates in the Maritime Union of New Zealand received, but they refuse to make the roster changes MUNZ members already have made.

‘‘It is ludicrous to think we would ever put forward unsafe changes and the 201 MUNZ members have no safety issues with the roster changes.’’

Kerr said union members had been prepared to compromise and take a lower 3 per cent rise in the first year, and the same in the second and third years if the final term was reduced so that both unions would be negotiating at the same time in the third year.

‘‘The port company said they would only accept it if we took a 1.5 per cent rise in the third year,’’ he said.

‘‘We hoped everyone could take a deep breath and find a proper resolution, especially as the port’s chief executive has returned from his overseas trip.

‘‘Once again the port has rejected any compromise we suggested.

‘‘Lyttelton Port should use the next 14 days to think about how they’re treating the people who make their profits.

‘‘We cannot give up this fight, but we want to resolve this dispute quickly and restore security to the South Island logistics supply chain. We’ve bent over backwards to try and sort this out, meeting with management multiple times and providing many options to resolve this dispute.’’

Davie said he put three separate options back to the union.

‘‘The response to our three offers was to only make small changes in some areas of their last offer made back to us, but these have not materially affected the overall cost of us reaching settlement.’’

The port’s offer was higher than settlements being agreed by RMTU members in other ports.

‘‘We hope that RMTU members will recognise the severe impact their ongoing actions are having on our customers.’’