Between the lines: Testing times on the wharves

By ROB O'NEIL

A few weeks ago Ports of Auckland chief executive Geoff Vazey told the Business Herald that ports do not add value, they only add cost.

It is that reality, the desire to reduce added cost, which has driven port change and privatisation over the past decade.

Port competition has delivered vast increases in efficiency, to the benefit of exporters and importers and the shipping lines serving our shores.

In some ports, ship turnaround times have been reduced from more than five days to less than two days.

But competition is about to be ramped up to a new level with the arrival of huge container and mixed container/reefer vessels.

These will be fully a third larger than any of the ships now calling here.

The implications for some ports will be enormous.

The number of local ports these ships will call at is likely to be reduced.

Ports they do favour will receive fewer visits but larger cargoes.

These ships are going to be worked very hard and quick turnarounds will also be required.

That may require increased capital investment in cranes, or dredging, or both.

The supervessels may also drive a further round of port industrial relations change.

Down on the waterfront, labour relations have been rebuilt around the need for "flexibility."

Casual work has dramatically increased and terms for full-time employment have been loosened.

Reduced container ship visits and increased workload when a vessel is in port can only drive demand for workplace flexibility higher -- and that at a time unions will be seeking to regain lost ground.

The coming Employment Relations Act has given the unions the sniff of a comeback.

Details of that bill are still being thrashed out in a select committee, but the unions are looking forward to increased coverage and therefore improved bargaining power.

Mr Vazey says the impact of the big ships in Auckland will be minimal.

Auckland has 2000 ship visits a year and the change will result in some dozens of visits less.

However, for smaller ports, where there may not be a vessel in port on some days or weeks, the impact will be more serious.

Steve Penn of the Tauranga Waterfront Workers Union said that while workers did not have a lot more flexibility to give, one of the effects of the vessels could be changes to the present system of working three eight-hour shifts.

More workers could be required to work a vessel more intensely until finished.

Strife has been absent from New Zealand waterfronts for some time, but it has not necessarily been replaced with goodwill and harmony.

Expect relations to be tested when the immovable force of competition meets the irresistible object of revived labour.