Lyttelton Port Stevedore Heiner Benecke says the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) will fight any sell down of Christchurch City Council’s ownership of the port if his bid to become the union’s General Secretary succeeds. Benecke is running against the Acting General Secretary Todd Valster in a postal ballot that will conclude in mid-April.

‘There has been speculation since late last year, after an investment bank, Northington Partners, published a report for Christchurch City Council advocating asset sales, that the Council may go down that road. Recent media reports suggest there is some momentum behind this1,’ said Benecke.

‘It’s about time we killed off the zombie economics of neo-liberalism once and for all, and that includes the idea of selling publicly owned assets like the port that generate income for all the people of Christchurch.’

‘Asset sales did not feature in last years local election campaign and Phillip Mauger, our new mayor, has no mandate for selling off the family silver, and yet it appears the vultures are already circling and demanding we sell off the very assets that have kept rates down in Christchurch in comparison to other New Zealand cities,’ he said.

‘The Council has asked for a detailed business cases on partial privatisation and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce is calling for “asset recycling and demonstrating an openness to public-private partnerships”. In other words, flogging off our port and other assets.

‘If anyone thinks they can sell off what belongs to the people of Christchurch without a fight then they are in for a rude awakening,’ he said.

‘Our union’s experience of privatisation is that health and safety quickly comes second to squeezing out short term profits. You only have to look at rail in the 1990s. For our members, working in safety critical jobs, sale of the port is literally a life and death matter‘

‘If I’m leading the RMTU next month and the Council tries to go down the road of asset sales you can be assured there will be the mother of all campaigns to stop it. I am confident we can mobilise the public around this issue and we will win,’ he said.

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