You're a psychopathic manager. You're well-paid, but not enough for your narcissistic ego. So you come up with a plan: provoke an industrial dispute at the company you manage, so you can sack the entire workforce and replace them with a new workforce run by a company you own. The shareholders who you work for will lose big - tens of millions of dollars - but you'll get ahead, and your new workforce will be compliant and docile and fulfil your desire for dominance, unlike those uppity union workers.
Something like that appears to have happened at Ports of Auckland. A manager employed to manage the business on behalf of its shareholders, the people of Auckland, appears to have been selling them out for his own financial advantage:
A Ports of Auckland manager who was at the bargaining table with the Maritime Union has been linked to a company hiring non-union wharfies.Obviously, this manager needs to be suspended immediately, and a full investigation begun into his conflict of interest, the effect it has had on negotiations, and how much the other managers knew about it. And if it is found that they have colluded in this ripoff of their own shareholders, they should all be sacked.The man has allegedly been recruiting staff for a new company, Pacific Crew Holdings Ltd, which was registered with the Companies Office on February 27.
The timing of the new company - nine days before Ports of Auckland announced it would replace 235 striking union members with non-union wharfies - has raised concerns at the Auckland Council, which owns the port company.
