KEY POINTS:
A new notice of strike action has been issued by the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ)to Ports of Auckland.
Following Friday's withdrawal of a technically defective notice, MUNZ had now issued a new notice of a 24-hour strike from 10:59pm on December 2.
Ports managing director Jens Madsen said management had done everything possible to resolve the situation despite what he called a series of provocative union tactics, as the groups negotiate a collective employment agreement.
Madsen said that at a meeting this morning MUNZ offered an eight-hour stop-work meeting as an alternative to strike action.
"We could not accept this offer as the impact on operations is the same as strike action. We offered MUNZ two three-hour stop-work meetings to discuss the issues with their members."
Union representatives were unavailable for comment.
The MUNZ collective employment agreement expired on November 30 2006.
The ports says strike action will involve around 265 union members, affecting the container terminal stevedoring, road, rail, shuttle and engineering services.
- NZPA
