Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) has reached an agreement with the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) to extend the withdrawal of strike notices until Tuesday March 20.
LPC operations manager Paul Monk says the temporary withdrawal of the strike notices will allow meaningful trade to begin to return to the port.
“With this level of strike withdrawal notification, the shipping lines, exporters and importers will be able to reorganise their schedules to some extent, allowing at least a minimum amount of shipping to return to the port.
“We have had overwhelming customer feedback that the union’s previous withdrawal of strike notices came too late for most of them to divert shipping back to Lyttelton.”
LPC has agreed to pay the RMTU members rostered to work on the days strike notices have been withdrawn, despite there being little work for them over the next two days.
That’s because the likelihood is there will be no ships to service.
“While we realise uncertainty still remains beyond March 20, with strike notices still in place for 21 to 25 March, what has happened today is a positive development.”
