The logs were being shipped for export by Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), a subsidiary of International Paper. Mainland Stevedoring was contracted by CHH last November to handle log loading at Bluff and has since then expanded its operations into Port Chalmers, Timaru, and Nelson. Logs were previously loaded by local companies employing members of the Waterfront Workers Union. The union has organized pickets at each of these South Island ports, facing police harassment at each. On the Nelson picket line up to 60 police confronted the pickets, making several arrests.

Nelson Waterfront Workers Union secretary Jock Bruce said he and his members were convinced that the company's goal was nothing less than the bust-up of union awards. Trevor Hanson, the national secretary of the union, explained to TV3 news, "These people we are talking about were nonunion for some six years, and when the new [Employment Relations] Act came in they registered themselves as a union. We believe it is a company union and nothing more."

The Waterfront Workers Union in Timaru had tried to negotiate with Mainland, offering a cross hiring agreement with existing companies, all using the available pool of workers. But negotiations stalled over terms and conditions on which Mainland refused to budge. Mainland wanted 12-hour shifts with just two breaks, instead of the union's minimum of three. It also wanted a flat rate of pay, which would drive down the existing wage rate. There were also safety concerns, with Mainland using only one hatchman to ensure the load is secure, and fewer workers on each crew.

Mainland Stevedoring is owned by Tauranga-based International Stevedoring Operations, which was involved in a union-busting assault on the Onehunga wharf in Auckland in 1999. While they were unable to remove the union there, members who put up a 10-week fight lost their jobs. Paul Harper, CHH general manager of fiber logistics, told the Southland Times that the company exports through a number of ports in the South Island. They are preparing for an increase to some 15 million tons of logs to come "on stream" in the next couple of years. Contracting Mainland Stevedoring, Harper said, was a commercial decision aimed at cutting costs.

Solidarity pickets supporting the waterfront workers have been held in Auckland, Christchurch, and other centers outside Carter Holt Harvey offices and shops. Workers in south Korea expressed their solidarity with the waterfront workers in New Zealand by unloading the Eastern Forest, the first ship loaded by Mainland to arrive there, one log at a time for the first 15 minutes, before taking a three hour stoppage.

Annalucia Vermunt is a member of the Meat Workers Union in Christchurch.  
 
 
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