Maritime workers join national day of action against asset sales

Maritime workers will be among thousands of people joining rallies in cities around New Zealand this Saturday 27 April to demand no asset sales.

Maritime Union of New Zealand national secretary Joe Fleetwood says the union strongly supports keeping public owned assets.

“It’s about looking out for the majority.”

Mr Fleetwood says all New Zealanders are currently shareholders in public assets including state owned power companies, and it should stay that way.

“Any privatisation is simply narrowing the benefit to a minority of people, and as we have seen many times before, these assets will eventually end up in the hands of big global investors.”

He says there has been a strong positive reaction to the announcement this week of the Labour/Green joint power policy which was a move in the right direction.

Mr Fleetwood says there is also substantial concern about the privatisation threat to ports in New Zealand, many of which are owned by local Government for the benefit of local communities.

He says this will be a hot issue during the local body elections later this year.