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Auckland's container wharves will be idle today after the failure of a late bid to head off a 48-hour strike by 265 waterside workers from 7am.
Although Ports of Auckland says it does not expect trouble from pickets outside the two big container terminals, it has made intricate
arrangement for the police and security guards to patrol waterfront gates to prevent any trespassing.
It is asking non-striking staff and port users to carry photo identification at all times.
These measures and its provision of portable lavatories outside the gates have annoyed the Maritime Union, which says its members were allowed access to proper toilet facilities and company mess-rooms during a four-day strike in 2004, the last time they walked off the job.
"They don't like the second-class [pay] offer and they don't like the second-class toilets," said union branch secretary Russell Mayn, after the failure of talks yesterday afternoon with port company executives.
One container ship has been diverted to Tauranga, and five others face various levels of disruption, including a vessel which burned extra fuel to reach Auckland in time for a fast turnaround last night.
Although stevedores employed by private firms will still be able to load and unload cargo such as imported cars across general wharves, the port company says about 85 per cent of the more than $20 billion of goods it handles each year pass through its container terminals.
That means the strike could affect almost $100 million of goods at a busy time of year for exporters such as the dairy giant Fonterra and importers of pre-Christmas merchandise.
Importers Institute secretary Daniel Silva said this was one of the most inconvenient times of year for a strike.
New port company chief executive Jens Madsen said it was regrettable that the company's "many fair and reasonable" proposals to renew a collective employment agreement which expired 10 months ago was being met by a strike.
The company says a shorter strike, for just over three hours on Tuesday next week, will have a minimal impact on port operations.
But no sooner did yesterday's talks collapse in under two hours than the company received notice of a third strike the week after next, again for just over three hours, to symbolise its pay offer to the waterside workers of 3.25 per cent for each of three years.
The union believes that could seriously effect a new truck booking system the company intends introducing in the same week, to ease traffic congestion in Quay St.
Union advocate and branch president Denis Carlisle said his executive committee remained furious at the company's "paternalism" in having paid 3.25 per cent increase into workers' bank accounts without their permission, and some were pushing for a four-day strike.
The union says its claims for setting a new agreement are largely confined to pay rises of 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per cent and a service allowance of 2 per cent instead of an extra week's holiday, but the company says other items risk pushing the total bill to between 10 and 15 per cent.
Mr Carlisle said his members handled a 12.6 per cent increase in cargo volumes in the year to June 30 and deserved more than "pocket money" paid to them in a tactic "clearly designed to undermine genuine negotiations".
- additional reporting, Alanah May Eriksen