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Ports of Auckland is seeking more outside help to settle a dispute which today will again disrupt its two container terminals, this time for up to five hours.
It applied late yesterday to the Employment Relations Authority for "facilitated bargaining" in a formal setting to try to find a way through the dispute, which cost it 48 hours of lost production last week. Although today's strike is due to last only three hours and 15 minutes, to symbolise a rejected 3.25 per cent pay offer, the port company will refuse container truck deliveries for five hours from 9am.
The strike follows a 48-hour stoppage last week, and more industrial action is threatened next week and on Labour Day in pursuit of a pay claim of 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per cent.
Port company managing director Jens Madsen said yesterday that the union's claims for allowances on top of its pay demand would add more than 10 per cent to labour costs.
