A change of guard at the Maritime Union of New Zealand is under way, with long-time unionist Trevor Hanson stepping down from the general secretary role after 19 years to be replaced by Joe Fleetwood.
Following a recent postal ballot, two new national Munz officials were elected in the three-yearly elections and two others stood unopposed for re-election.
Mr Fleetwood, at present Munz Wellington branch secretary, is expected to become full-time general secretary, while Munz Bluff branch secretary Ray Fife, of Bluff, was elected Munz's new assistant general secretary.
In 2003, following several years of negotiations, the former Waterfront Workers Union and its 950 members and the then New Zealand Seafarers Union and its 700 members merged to become the Maritime Union of New Zealand, which now has 15 branches and about 2500 members.
The merger also included several hundred members from the New Zealand Store and Warehouse Union and those in the New Zealand Saddlebag Makers, Canvas Workers and Related Trades.
Mr Hanson, originally a watersider from Timaru, became general secretary for the Waterfront Workers in 1990 and held the position through its 2003 transition merger until retiring last week.
He is taking up the role of industrial spokesman for the Alliance Party.
MUNZ national president, and branch secretary at Port Chalmers, Phil Adams was re-elected unopposed, as was national vice-president Garry Parsloe, of Auckland.
In mid-2007, a proposed merger between the Rail and Maritime Transport Union and Munz which would have created a 6000-strong union, was canned.
In February that year, the unions with about 4000 RMTU members and about 2000 Munz members, agreed in principle to form a transport union.
However, no reason was given for the merger being dropped, other than officials saying agreement could not be reached on outstanding issues.
