Over 300 workers at the Ports of Auckland and their families are facing an uncertain future.

Their livelihoods are under threat.

Their employer has threatened to sack them unless their union accepts every one of the employer demands in collective bargaining negotiations.

That’s not negotiation. It’s intimidation and bullying.

Worse still, it’s being done by a company that is owned by the people of Auckland.

These employer demands would mean workers having no security with their rostered shifts.

That means not knowing whether you’ll be sent home after three hours or told to work a 12-hour shift. Or not having any work at all.

That’s not flexibility. That’s ruining workers family life for an irresponsible business model that won’t deliver for Auckland.

Ports of Auckland (POAL) management want to contract out port workers jobs and create a totally casualized workforce.

Casualization is harming New Zealand. Employers demand workers to be on standby, on call, working a few hours here or there.

Even where there is already a lot of flexibility, workers are expected to give up any hope of a structured and healthy life.

At the heart of the dispute between the workers who are members of the Maritime Union and the Ports of Auckland management is a fundamental issue: whether you as a worker should know what hours you will be working from one day to the next.

The current collective employment agreement at Ports of Auckland allows for flexibility. Up to a quarter of the current workforce can be employed on a casual basis and another quarter as permanent part-time workers.

The Maritime Union agreed to more flexibility and to an ongoing productivity improvement process. Workers are seeking only a modest 2.5% pay increase.

At present the base rate of pay for a stevedore is $27 an hour or around $56,000 for those on a 40-hour week. Ports of Auckland have shifts over a 24-hour period, 365 days a year.

The Ports of Auckland is a successful, productive and modern port. But you wouldn’t know it by the way Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson is always talking down his own business.

The facts speak for themselves. Thanks to the hard work of the people at the coal face, the Ports of Auckland is holding its own in a tough global economic environment.

Many reports indicate that Ports of Auckland has good productivity.

In September 2011 Ports of Auckland congratulated its workers for achieving the “best ever” container moves per hour on the port for the previous month.

Management even put on a celebration BBQ.

Now a few months later they want to sack their entire workforce.

Something doesn’t add up.

The employer has walked away from mediation and plans to sack these workers and contract out their jobs.

This is not only distressing for the workers and their families but it is damaging to the Port, which is owned by the people of Auckland.

These are skilled workers. Good workers. In return, for their hard work, they expect and deserve the security of knowing when they are working, and being able to plan their lives.

None of us are just workers. We’re mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.

Ports of Auckland workers are part of families that currently put up with mum or dad working all sorts of different hours any day of the week.

But at least these families can plan their budget knowing what their income will be – the Port proposal will destroy even this.

Ports of Auckland has a good safety record.

Compare this to the Port of Tauranga which has had three workplace deaths in 15 months.

Workers deserve to return home safe and well at the end of the working day.

There is an agenda being promoted to sell the port off or contract out port work and leave the Council simply owning the land.

A Government Commission has just published an unfinished report that calls for the ports to be privatised and de-unionised. This is not a coincidence.

Ports of Auckland belongs to all of us – the people of Auckland.

It must remain a public asset that benefits all of us and treats its workers with fairness and respect.

If you want to support Ports of Auckland workers and keep our port in our ownership, leave your details at our contact page.