KEY POINTS:
Auckland port workers will celebrate Labour Day today in the time-honoured tradition of the campaigning 19th-century Wellington carpenter Samuel Parnell - by going on strike again.
Although the strike by the 265 workers against the port company's two container terminals will be only for a symbolic three hours and 15 minutes from 10am, the Maritime Union is inviting family members and supporters to join them at "information" pickets outside both sites, where there will be barbecues to celebrate the public holiday.
Information pickets differ from "hard" action by not being aimed at stopping traffic from reaching the wharves, which will remain open for non-containerised freight, but closed to container trucks between 9am and 1.30pm.
And although the strike will be the fifth held by the union for a pay rise of 4.5 per cent to 4.9 per cent and allowances which the port company warns will boost labour costs by more than 10 per cent, no more notices of industrial action have been served ahead of enhanced negotiations due to begin tomorrow.
Unionists pay tribute every Labour Day to the stand taken by Parnell at Petone in 1840 in insisting he would work no more than eight hours a day, leaving "eight hours to sleep and eight hours for men to do what little things they can for themselves".
Maritime Union advocate and branch president Denis Carlisle said the latest strike was to highlight that, despite Parnell's efforts, Labour Day was usually a normal working day at the port.
The negotiations tomorrow and on Friday will be held before a facilitator from the Employment Relations Authority, which agreed last week to a request by the port company to become involved under a rarely-invoked provision in industrial law.
Mr Carlisle said his negotiating team was relaxed about joining the "facilitated collective bargaining" process, and had decided against lodging any more strike notices in the meantime in opposition to the company's offer of a 3.25 per cent pay rise for each of three years.
"We are going to give it a go - we have nothing to lose and are quite prepared to articulate our claims in any form because we believe they are reasonable and attainable," he said.
But he would not disclose the grounds on which the employment authority agreed to become involved, saying these were confidential.
The legislation allows the authority to intervene only if:
* bargaining has been undermined by a serious and sustained breach of good faith;
* bargaining has been unduly protracted amid the failure of extensive efforts to resolve differences;
* there have been protracted or acrimonious strikes or lockouts; or
* a strike or lockout threatens to substantially affect the public interest.
Strikes or lockouts are not prohibited during facilitation, but at the end of the process, the authority can make recommendations about how the parties should go about trying to reach agreement, or the terms and conditions of a settlement.
Although the parties do not have to follow such recommendations, they must consider them in good faith, and the authority may choose to step up pressure for a settlement by making them public.
Unlike during a 48-hour strike three weeks ago, when one container ship bypassed Auckland and several others were disrupted, the port company says there will be no impact on vessels today.
"We do not expect any significant delays to cargo operations and every effort will be made to minimise any delays at the road services," it said in a message to port users on Friday.
