To help their fictional story telling along, stuff reported today:
The possibility of further strikes at Ports of Auckland has forced major shipping line Maersk to shift one of its services to the Port of Tauranga, leaving the Auckland port company $20 million out of pocket.
Maersk told the port early this morning that it had shifted its Southern Star service to Tauranga.
Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson said he was ''hugely disappointed''.
''Maersk have explained to us that the possibility of further industrial unrest has been central to their decision to shift the service to Tauranga.''
It's a pile of rubbish of course, being that Maersk has been looking at the move to Tauranga for a long time now.
The proposal for Maersk to move its operations to Port Tauranga has been around since August 2006, when the Bay of Plenty times reported:
The Port of Tauranga has put a strong case to become the North Island's main port as the world's largest container shipping company chooses its international hub.
Maersk, the secretive Danish shipping giant, is less than two months away from choosing between Tauranga and Auckland.
Port of Tauranga chairman Mark Cairns today said the port had worked hard to put the strongest possible case to Maersk, which ships nearly 20 per cent of the port's cargoes.
It appears that the decision for Maersk to move to Tauranga could have been made way back in October 2006.
Tony Gibson has used the long term plan for Maersk to move to Tauranga to despicably try and swing public opinion against the picketers. The Ports of Auckland chief executive is simply pissed off that Auckland's operation is being impinged by the strike.
In August 2010, the Shipper's Council recommended that Tauranga become New Zealand's North Island international hub port:
In its report on New Zealand's international supply chain released today, the Council says Port of Tauranga is the logical choice to be first to make the investment to accommodate the larger 7,000TEU ships that are becoming the trend in international shipping.
Tauranga was always going to become New Zealand's main service hub because it can accomodate larger ships and has better infrastructure to deal with additional cargos.
If Tony Gibson is so worried about losing business, perhaps he shouldn't be paying scabs more than the warfies were getting and engage in some proper mediation talks.
