Auckland

Despite the claims of Garry Parsloe that not a single ship would be worked at Fergusson Terminal at the Ports of Auckland, ships are being worked and turned around in record time.

Lisa Schulte – Arrived pilot 0500 yesterday morning.  Vessel discharged 715 containers. ETD was this morning approximately 1000 hours – discharge completed ahead of schedule and sailed last night at 19:16.

Maersk Brani  - ETA 0600 Wednesday 7^th March. Expected exchange approximately 380 moves, ETD later same day.

Passat Spring -  ETA 2130 hours Wednesday 7^th March commencing work 0700 Thursday 8^th March. Total exchange approximately 1100 exchange.

The court hearing in Wellington has finished – the Judge has reserved his decision until early afternoon.

The Maritime Union have flown in the bruvvers to assist and Matthew Dearnely in the Herald this morning repeats all their bravado, including this from a stroppy American unionist:

“There’s huge international support – I mean this is an international incident at this point,” said International Longshore and Warehouse Union vice-president Ray Familathe, as 300 Auckland port workers reached the 10th day of a four-week strike.

“It has gone beyond reason, the management seems to be on a destructive path here, which just seems to have no common sense about achieving some balance in the collective agreement between management and labour.”

I wonder why Matthew Dearnely didn’t mention that this Longshore unionist, who has been quoted in his papers, is the same unionist who threatened a POAL staffer in 2010 (when Ports was considering bringing in competing stevedores on the wharf) saying “we know how to deal with people like you in the US” and “don’t ever come to the States”?

I hope while Ray Familathe is here he asks the Maritime Union to share how much their Stevedores get because given his current pay arrangements perhaps he is looking for job here.

The Maritime Union continues to endorse racism, bullying and sexism. I’m not sure why they think that meddling unionists from overseas are welcome here to meddle in our industrial relations.

One thing is for sure, Ports of Auckland continues to unload and load ships without the union bully-boys of the Maritime Union. Every ship that is processed drives a nail into the heart of the union cause. No wonder half of their members no longer show up ont he picket, some having bolted to Australia for work. They have given up.

Apparently the Sky City deal won’t increase the overall number of pokie machines.

Hmmm… very interesting.  What further involvement has Bews-Hair had in this deal?

And did the Mayor do as he was told and lobbied Government just so he’d get that Convention Centre?

I blogged about this development back in June last year….looks like it panned out precisely as I suspected.

So, Mr Bews-Hair (on behalf and with Mayor Len Brown) put together a deal with Sky City so that Sky City would build and pay for the convention centre.  In return for what?  Well, the lovely thing for the Mayor is that the ratepayers don’t have to pay for the convention centre.  And you know that Theatre that all those councillors thought they were voting to get built… well, that’ll all be included in the convention centre – under Sky City’s banner (with Len cutting the ribbon he hopes).  Have the councillors who voted for the theatre actually checked how many caveats are in place around getting that theatre built?  Oh yeah, it’ll happen…ummm, not using ratepayer money.

So, the ratepayers of Auckland do win.  They won’t have to pay for a convention centre (which are always dogs) or a theatre.  But what are Sky City expecting in return?  All Council related functions (including CCOs) to be held there (imagine the catering and accommodations costs)?  That seems a bit simple.

Or are Sky City expecting the Mayor of the largest Council in the country to lobby Government with regard to pokie and gambling legislation?  Hmmmm… so it is only the right who have relationships with Corporates?  Have a good hard look, Greens and Labour.  Labour run the risk of the Mayor of Auckland outperforming the central Government wing of the Party.

On a final note, is it true that Bews-Hair was seen in Sky City’s corporate box at the cricket on Saturday night?

Len Brown appears to be moving closer and closer to a position of cutting off the influence of MUNZ in the Ports of Auckland dispute. How does someone once so loony become almost sane?

The more I look into it the clearer it becomes – the two political operatives in his office (Conor Roberts and James Bews-Hair) appear to be at the centre of this change of sanity.  The time has come to put a bit of sunlight on these two back-roomers.  Let’s look at Bews-Hair first (he’s more of a challenge compared to Labour’s great white hope).

From a general perspective my research into Bews-Hair has exposed a very peculiar character, what the Aussies would call a faceless man. (It was bloody hard getting a photo of him) He is the very definition of a backroom operator: He hates daylight and loathes any public attention. In fact, he is so shady that he apparently gets all nervous and anxious even if he finds himself in a room full of people.

His skulking, though, has been remarkably successful.  Curiously (and I still don’t get this), almost all of it seems to be anti-leftie in its focus:

• In the 90′s he was part of Labour right. He was very close mates with Phil Quin (and of course later worked in Goff’s ministerial office with Shearer).  I am told he was heavily involved in the outrageous fake polling racket of marginal electorates.
• Bews-Hair was the Labour right’s economist –  which I guess came in handy when making up poll numbers
• Ten years ago he was in charge of fighting a well-financed battle against leftie attempts to destroy Sky City’s money-printing machines in both Australia and NZ. In NZ.  Bews-Hair was particularly good mates with the Minister responsible for reforming gambling, George Hawkins – and he made the most of that fact.  Provisions pushed by the anti-gambling lobby (and their many friends in Government) to reduce casino gambling harm were watered down across the board. Most notably, the story goes, he made sure proposed community good taxes for casinos were sunk. Bews-Hair is also the main reason that gaming machines are still alllowed to accept bank notes (meaning people can wreck their lives $20 at a time rather than a coin at a time). Strange work for a Labour-man.
• In Australia, he was doing battle with Australasia’s only “No Pokies” MP Nick Xenophon. Fortunately Bews-Hair had befriended the Rann brothers (one of whom became Premier of SA). Again he harvested his friendship on behalf of the family wreckers, saved their cushy tax status and insulated Sky City from the savage attacks of the enemies of gambling.
• It seems Bews-Hair needed to cleanse his supposedly pink soul after that lot and he took a touchy feely do-gooder community development job in the Far North. Presumably he was meant to hug trees and the indolent with equal gusto. It appears, though, that he can’t help himself. He wrote an economic development startegy that effectively linked the Far North at the hip with the mining industry. He then set up a regional industry group for the miners that secured public funding to do all sorts of studies and PR campaigns promoting mining.  To this day, it is still working.

And now, as I’ve previously posted, he’s back in Auckland and at it again. Cosy deals over casino convention centres, turning pinko Len into a union crusher, pedalling user pays for roads like some sort of Treasury zealot.

During my research the most telling thing I was told was: “he almost never does something for one reason, there’s usually at least two agendas and often multiple. It’s because of this that so many people dislike him, and even more don’t understand him”.

So there is obviously a serious amount of evil running through him, but what I don’t get is why on earth he insists on attaching himself to the Labour Party, particularly as they don’t seem to like him anymore? Maybe he has a thing for women with facial hair – that could be why he keeps on ending up in hospital.

He certainly isn’t a tin-foil hat wearer though he has been known to wear a cabbage leaf hat…perhaps to help him fit in with the weirder of the Brown hangers-on.

And finally, yes, my intention was to scare the devious pants off a critter who prefers very dark corners, by showing how much I can find out about him without even trying.  Sunlight hurts!

Will probably leave Conor Roberts for next week. One thing though, Roberts assures me that there is no feud between him and Bews-Hair. Presumably that is because they are holed up at completely different ends of the Town Hall.

Despite the bravado of MUNZ union boss Garry Parsloe in saying that not a single ship would be unloaded at Ports of Auckland during their strike the union of the shipping companies, The International Container Lines Committee, has said that they will continue to put ships into Auckland:

Container lines will continue to call at Auckland

Shipping lines have reaffirmed their commitment to Auckland, despite the ongoing strike action currently underway at the port’s container terminals.

International Container Lines Committee Chair Julian Bevis said member lines had met earlier this week to discuss the continuing dispute between Ports of Auckland and the local branch of the Maritime Union. The meeting followed reports that ships calling at Auckland may be subjected to industrial action elsewhere.

Mr Bevis said as long as the port company could assure lines that ships calling at Auckland would be worked, and functional receipt and delivery services for containers would be maintained, the lines would endeavour to continue calling at the port.

“Our members’ contracts are with the port company and, wherever possible, we will stick to those contracts,” Mr Bevis said.

“Shipping companies go where the cargo is. Auckland is an important node in New Zealand’s freight network, and we intend to continue to service customers wanting to put cargo through Auckland,” Mr Bevis said.

With all the moaning from Garry Parsloe, from his hotel in Sydney, about casualisation and all the moaning in the video by the Save our Ports campaign you would think that ships rock up on the horizon unannounced, catching the port unawares and really stretch the resources of the troops coping with the sudden arrival.

What I want to know is why they can’t simply consult the Ports of Auckland Website which displays scheduled arrivals months in advance right down to the time they will arrive and plan accordingly.

Pretty simple stuff…obviously too complicated for the morons in the Maritime Union.

Chris Trotter has had a shocker. In his latest post he tries to suggest that stevedores pulling $91,000 per annum is just a little bit above bare subsistence:

Small wonder, then, that capitalists hate unions. By lifting workers’ wages above bare subsistence level (as the Maritime Unions have done on the Auckland wharves) the trade union reduces the size of the shareholders’ dividend. And since maximising the return to shareholders is the prime function of every business, it is hardly surprising that keeping unions out of the workplace ranks high on most boss’s list of priorities.

This is silly stuff from Chris Trotter, I am disappointed in him as I respect his opinions a lot.

Photo from shipspotting.com

via the tipline

I have been told, fairly reliably, that today is a watershed day for industrial relations in New Zealand.

It is 61 years since a ship berthed at Fergusson Wharf has been unloaded by 100% non-union labour.

Garry Parsloe skited from his hotel room in Sydney that not a single ship would berth at Ports of Auckland while the strike was on and this morning Maersk Aberdeen sailed in as dawn broke and is now currently alongside and working at the terminal.  Worse for Garry Parsloe is the last port of call for Maersk Aberdeen was Melbourne.

While the Union members wait outside in the cold, and after threats have been made to shipping companies, as well as to non-union labour, things are happening inside the Port. The Port is operating.

For the first time in 61 years the Ports of Auckland are being successfully operated with non-union labour. This is a great demonstration from the world’s largest container ship operator that they are determined to achieve greater productivity at Ports of Auckland.

That they have berthed a vessel in Auckland during the MUNZ action shows their determination to support Ports of Auckland during the strike. I hope all the other shipping lines are as supportive.

I still can’t work out why Ruth Dyson is raining on Len Brown’s parade. Back in June 20111, Labour’s mayor said:

“I sure as hell want to see a convention centre in Auckland and see it as being one of the most critical things for us becoming a destination and not a gateway,” Mr Brown said.

So long as the ratepayers aren’t paying for it, and it appears that Sky City is the one coughing then I’m right behind Len Brown.

I shall remain silent on len Brown breaking his election promise of a sinking lid on pokie machines. As far as I’m concerned let the losers pay for the convention centre.

The Port Hills MP (from Christchurch) Ruth Dyson doesn’t think Auckland needs a convention centre. I don’t either but that is an other matter entirely that I have canvassed before. 

Today, she’s issued a rhetoric laden statement declaring Labour’s strong opposition to the convention centre.

“John Key’s government has become reliant on the glitz of commercial projects to boost the perception that it is performing.”

If Labour had a Leader, he or she would be reminding Dyson that Len Brown’s all in favour and they’re raining on his parade.  Brown was even at the announcement:

Auckland’s mayor is defending his support of SkyCity’s convention centre, despite backing a sinking lid policy when it come to pokie machines.

Both David Carter and Len Brown welcome the opportunity to boost the Auckland economy.