KEY POINTS:
Waterfront workers have given notice of a potentially crippling two-day strike at Ports of Auckland after receiving a "goodwill" pay rise they say they didn't want.
The port company's new managing director, Jens Madsen, said yesterday that the Maritime Union had notified it of a strike by about 250 workers across its two container terminals and its general wharfs for 48 hours from October 2.
Mr Madsen said staff had waited far too long for a pay rise since their collective agreement expired late last year, so the company decided to start giving them the first instalment of a 3.25 per cent increase it had offered them for each of the next three years.
"That is why we made the unprecedented goodwill gesture - as a stop-gap measure until settlement on the new agreement is reached."
But union branch president Denis Carlisle said last night that his members were incensed that the company paid the money into their bank accounts without their permission.
"Our membership doesn't want the money until they get it on their terms," he said. "What the company is doing is an insult to our membership - they are proud people, and don't want handouts from the new chief executive."
He said the watersiders were seeking rises ranging from 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per cent in a two-year deal, and challenged the company to reinstate backpay which it had removed from the bargaining table.
"If it wants to give them money, why not give them their backpay?"
The port company says the union's claims equate to a pay rise of 10 per cent to 15 per cent in the first year, and are not economically viable.
Mr Madsen said the company had tied in key performance indicators with an attractive productivity bonus scheme to keep drawing international shipping lines to Auckland in a highly competitive global market.
He said that as the port operated a hubbing system between international and coastal shipping, and land transport operations, the threatened strike could have considerable flow-on effects with "huge implications" in terms of cost and shipping schedules.
The port would keep in close contact with its customers in trying to mitigate the effects of a strike.
