Covid 19 coronavirus: More of Russian fishing crew test positive
More fishermen have tested positive for Covid-19 after a number of cases at the Sudima Christchurch Airport hotel.
A total of 18 from the group have tested positive, announced today by the Ministry of Health.
It follows the discovery yesterday that eleven of the fishermen had returned positive results, 14 other cases were under investigation.
They are among 440 fishers from Russia and the Ukraine, 270 of whom are due to go out on three Independent Fisheries boats next month.
I don’t understand.
This is the Sealords TV advert and I can’t for the life of me see any Russian or Ukrainian fishermen at all in the entire advert…
…how can a multi-billion dollar industry like fishing not train any new staff up and instead rely on a cheap imported slave work force?
Is that progress NZ?
It’s sad to see Māori capitalism is as venal as Pakeha capitalism.
The late stage crony capitalism that has propped up fishing is a political, environmental and a Union failure.
Politically the fishing industry can stop cameras being on boats while they plunder the seas and they ensure a deunionised workforce because the CTU is a middle class Union that focuses on plumping benefits for Wellington Bureaucrats and as such don’t give a shit about actual working peoples in the trades.
On top of this political corruption, on top of the environmental damage and the total lack of worker rights, the industry is now allowed to import Covid infected workers???
The response from the Industry will of course be predictable. New Zealander’s are too soft, too spoilt by the welfare benefit that they don’t want these great jobs. What they are really saying is NZers value their lives and aren’t prepared to work the exploitation wages that Russians and Ukrainians are.
We need compulsory Union membership on all vessels inside NZs economic territory, we need all boats with cameras and we need an enforcement regime that will actually prosecute any fishing boat damaging the environment.
In a world where fish stocks are collapsing and our fish are more valuable than ever, to pretend there isn’t any money to build a sustainable and regulated industry is unacceptable.
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Fundamentally, I’d say yes in agreement to all of the above in my opinion.
Lets take a closer look at the humble fush.
It is under the surface of water. It is a swimmy kind of thing. They look a bit funny. Most of them taste awesome. ( Sorry fush but you do. ) but best of all….
They cost zero to cultivate. All you have to do is go to the ocean and scoop them up.
Ka fucking ching ! Aye Boys?
I heard someone talking solemnly about how impawdant it was that his fishing industry MUST import Russians because there was a shortage of experienced fisher persons here. He went on to say that it was vital that his fishing enterprise went on unabated because there was all those poor on-shore people who relied on his awesome self and his awesome boats and his awesome skills to stay afloat. ( A little nautical irony there.) He also stressed that his Russian slaves… oops, sorry Russian fisher-persons of great experience were to be very well tested for c-19 so turn the other way and go back to your tv and eat your sliver of fush that cost you $78.00 a gram.
I heard in his voice the stale fart sounds of a greedy, right wing neo-liberal bull shit artist laying it on thick. The sort of thing you’ll find on RNZ for example.
Like this:
“The rookie ACT MPs who might not be what you expect”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018769583/the-rookie-act-mps-who-might-not-be-what-you-expect
It’s all ‘rookies’ and ‘newbies’. The gag worth vernacular of the americlone pink and cleaner in mid bleached perineum stride fluffing out from these two white sugar eating ding dongs.
RNZ The Detail.
Sharon Brettkelly & Emile Donovan
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail
Had they thought to get past their sunny high dollar smiles to peel back the skin of ACT they’d a found little roger douglas dug in like the Tick he is.
No disrespect to actual Ticks.
My point is that there’s still that Deep State special Op’s unit of the dreaded natzos out there operating under the banner of neoliberalism working their black magic.
That’s why we have sick Russians putting our lives at risk for a dodgy, rorting, money printing fishing ‘industry’ aka swindle.
Where are our bloody useless Unions? There is so much wrong with our Unions, happy to take our money. For what? This is a disgrace (yes I know it’s been going on for a long time and in many other industries). We as a country need to power up the Unions, starting with a cleanout of management. The Unions have to stop this type of exploitation, exploitation of OUR redundant workers in lieu of desperate immigrants. Calling all Unions,
it’s past time to step up and do your job. Organise action. Show some balls, now is the time. Don’t wait for the National Party to get back in and make it even harder. Labour is weak. Get into it!
the unions were screwed in the early 90s by the employment contracts act, Sadly, and this is what we need to remedy, so many workers don’t see the need to belong to a union any more.
“so many workers don’t see the need to belong to a union any more.” Only because they have generally had no actual life experience of what it was like to have any real protection from the unions… I remember those times well, and, surprise surprise, everyone still made heaps of money!! The economic leanings of the “Maori elites”, or “Iwi leaders” as they were dubbed by the colonial news media are indistinguishable from those of the nationalist/colonial party.. It is Exploitation economics, and is as short sighted, and ultimately self defeating as the policies pursued by the Nat/col party on behalf of their owners… Rather than simply improve conditions for fishing crews, they just bring in desperate people who are well used to having to prostrate themselves in order to earn a living… That is simply taking advantage of people who know no better than subsistence living as a result of epic corruption levels, and ethnic bigotry… This defines “the low road” to profit taking…
Perhaps this is one reason kiwis aren’t so keen to line up for fishing industry jobs amongst the myriad of other reasons.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/317794/deterioration-of-rope-blamed-for-fisherman%27s-death
Peter Talley has to pay for his mansion’s somehow so he can have a nice place for John Key and Shane Jones to stay in when they go visit him to discuss their shady deals.
Yep Control denied I aree with your suppostion as Shane jones was a slipperty caracter all the time.
He possilbly prefers to run with John Key/Steven Joyce cabal who sol us down the river in their time.
Talleys have also donated to Labour in the past. Maybe why Covid Russian Fishers get the work permits through and still no cameras on board?
These people, like the Talleys, or Sky City, donate 50,000 to a few parties.
I don’t think that is even really relevant. Do you really think any political party makes policy decisions based on 50k?
Maybe they do. If that’s all it takes then there would be thousands of multi-millionaires donating 50k. And all we would have to do is get rid of political donations. But I just cannot believe that, I spent my life with these people 50k is a weekend in Beijing.
There are obviously truckloads of cash being bestowed on these politicians for them to make these decisions that destroy a country.
In today’s world, of offshore tax havens and international banking as easy as a 1234, there must be cards handed out with 7 digits for these politicians to spend, in any jurisdiction in the world with a reciprocal FTA or any financial agreement.
Surely there is, or am I just fucking mad.
Why cannot people see what is going on for what it is.
I’ve done two short stints for Sanford and Talley’s on board an inshore trawler and also in a fish meal factory.
Let me tell you the word amongst their seasoned workers was that Sealord was the most desirable company to work for in the industry. Does that make you wonder what working for Talley’s and Sandford is like if Sealord is so currently despised? They ranked the 3 main companies in order of preference to work for.
Sealord
Talley’s
Sanford
I’ve never worked for Sealord and I dare not go near the fishing industry again after working for the other 2 I value my life and health far too much.
I haven’t checked exchange rate between the NZ $ and the ruble lately (or ever) but I suspect that NZ$s that represent shit pay here convert to riches when converted to rubles and spent on living in Russia. i expect that this is the driving economic factor that determines who mans the processing factory within these ships. Not just that it must be an awful job.
D J S
Well, people DO have the power: let’s stop buying those tasty fresh fush from the exploitative duopoly in cahoots with Sealord. Or is it the fush fingers we should be leaving in the freezer? All a bit tedious? And anyways, is it the cold water krill or those deep-water creatures with the long tails and big eyes (the one’s you’d never buy if you saw them on ice) that are the target for the long-haul. Who can resist a tasty bit of inshore kahawai or trevally (half the price of the humble snapper and no more than a bottle of wine or bog standard brew) … and for most of us, SO convenient. It’s become second nature. Like all our consumer habits. Fill up the SUV and head off on that weekend away, eh. Oh, a cheap ticket to sun drenched Ko Samui …might have to put that one on hold for a while.
Quips aside, and apologies to those who DO think about such things and DO care, its about time people starting asking serious questions about the fishing industry here (and elsewhere), especially mainstream media since that is where most punters form their views (and that in itself is another story!!). For too long we have been fed the discourse that the fishing industry is simply good for business (and for exports and for that gold standard attainment in neoliberal aspirations, economic growth). Well maybe it is. We all need to turn a profit, right? But let’s have some accountability. Let’s see it for what it REALLY is.
And given the present circumstances, let’s also put some light on other good-for-business industries that exploit labour, not to mention natural resources. A life time of work?
Yep Control denied; %.
I aree with your suppostion as Shane jones was a slipperty caracter all the time.
He possilbly prefers to run with John Key/Steven Joyce cabal who sold us down the river in their time.
Ahh no. Was a minister in the Blairite’s government. The irony lost on all here was it wasn’t just Winston’s fault there was collective cabinet responsibility over the last 3 years.
That is why the next 3 years are going to be so damn interesting for the left. The super majority on the left left/centre means there is nobody to blame going forward.
Agree 100%.
Also the workshy Kiwis get upset when their kin are decapitated…. apparently compensation is cheap though at $21,000 and so helpful when the crew can be whipped out of the country or abscond for the company and be blamed for the deaths, thus helpful for their employers.
“When the knot slipped apart at about 2.30pm on August 24 the ship’s captain yelled from the crow’s nest for a crew member to secure it and continue winching in a net full of fish, placing undue weight on the broken safety line.
That line whipped back and decapitated Muir who was in the boat’s high-risk “snapback” zone.
His head was lost overboard and the remaining crew stored Muir’s body in a freezer as the boat departed for Samoa.
Muir’s mother Glenys Muir said she had trouble sleeping since her son’s death.
“I dread that part of him lost at sea will wash up on a beach one day and no one will know who he is.
“I’m mad that the skipper made the call to lift the gear, I’m mad that others did not have the guts to question him and I’m mad that a catch of fish was worth more than our son’s life.
Prosecutor Dale La Hood told the court the rope which ultimately killed Muir could have been replaced in under 30 minutes but when a crew member raised the possibility with the ship’s bosun, he “reacted badly and scared the others off”.
Interviews with the M.J Souza’s crew showed the captain was known to yell at them, he said.
“There was a culture from the captain down that reflected badly on the company.”
Talley’s lawyer Jonathan Eaton said responsibility for the accident fell to the ship’s captain and bosun who had since “absconded” from New Zealand and refused to cooperate with any investigation.”
In addition rumours abound that conditions are so poor on some modern fishing vessels that the workers are virtually slaves that disappear when the complain and are raped, and their family in far away places have nobody to complain to.
NZ investigators expose slavery and human trafficking at sea
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1805/S00153/nz-investigators-expose-slavery-and-human-trafficking-at-sea.htm
Neoliberal NZ government propping up the slave fishing industry by granting foreign fishers visas.
Slave fishing in NZ waters exposed
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/5431221/Slave-fishing-in-NZ-waters-exposed
Link to the Talley’s shocking workplace accident.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/80905946/talleys-pays-reparations-to-decapitated-crewmans-family-after-safety-failure
Now Winston, the ‘fishermen’s friend’ (wink/nudge), no longer has any political influence or clout, maybe, just maybe, someone with backbone and moral courage in the newly-elected Govt will call Talley and their likes to heel! Your time is up, Talley and co! Drag them in, Labour!!
yes yes yes
Our model is based on the master/slave model. Wealthy people in leafy suburbs need another holiday house to add to their comfortable life styles. Peasants at home won’t do it. Get ’em from overseas.
What better way than to have slaves down in the fields:
“Body all aching
And wracked with pain
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk
And you land in jail.”
@Peter, the problem is that the left woke are supporting the importation of workers from overseas for neoliberalism and so are some unions.
Sorry, this woke lefter is absolutely against importation of exploitable labour. If it ain’t fish it’s fruit and both of these industries seem to be unable to operate profitably by properly paying humans.
But I guess we reap what we sow, so enjoy your $0.99 Gala apples this summer
Yeah it’s not just Talley’s although they are a major part of the problem, and until some politicians show sufficient balls to throw all the lobbyists out of parliament grounds it is unlikely that much will change.
Why is it the fisheries inspectors who shut down small scale local fishing (which they have the gall to call poaching) with such zest & determination, simply refuse to police the activities of the corporate ocean rapists.
I’ve seen the destruction of our coastal fisheries (that was sanfords along with Sealord’s predecessor Jaybel (JBL)) and that was bad enough as I discovered in the early 80’s when I was forced to rely on catching fish to eat, because the Muldoon mob had declared a huge chunk of Aotearoa ‘an area of low employment’ meaning that not only were there no jobs, there was no dole either. At the remote bay where I had a small home along with two neighbouring families, we used to be able to support our protein requirements easily with no drop in fish stock. Then the purse seiners were licensed to come through our bay as they had already vacuumed up everything less remote so finding snapper or kawhai became impossible. All that remained was a few tiny fish which we misnamed hoki and all agreed not to catch in the hope that their presence might encourage a return of other species. It didn’t, so I moved to another country and my neighbours who were no longer able to get protein to supplement their home grown vegetables, nor able to get cash money to buy meat, were forced to take up cannabis growing (on a very small scale) so they could buy meat & fish for their children.
This is how we have destroyed Aotearoa, it is impossible to live anywhere here without a cash income now. I used to know old fellas who had lived through the depression who said that they survived because it was still possible for a person to support themselves without cash.
Eventually of course everyone in my bay and the surrounding ones was forced to sell up, to pay rates for services we never received and now the bay, once home 24/7/365 to families, is a cluttered with ugly, occasionally occupied ‘holiday homes’ for rich foreign criminals – no vegetable gardens grow there any more.
Restoring our fisheries must be one of the first acts of any truly reforming government.
Apart from a few fat arsed capitalists contently sitting on their spotty behinds picking blackheads, no citizens of Aotearoa gain anything from our once bountiful fishery.
We lose access to our fish and now even the deckhands are non-citizens, not to mention the mates, skippers, engineers, knifehands, freezer workers etc who work on the ‘factory’ ships.
I guess not hiring kiwis reduces the odds of anyone spilling the beans about under size, over catching or illegally retaining by-product.
I feel damn sorry for the Russian & Ukrainian workers, generally found around the corner from the nearest bottle-O whenever I go into town.
The poor buggers’ only entertainment is getting pissed as & since their pay is so bad they cannot afford to drink in bars, they buy takeaways and consume them on the streets.
More than once I’ve had to remonstrate with bottleshop owners who treat them like garbage.
We lose and they lose, so WTF is this rort still going on?
I’ve worked for 2 Talley’s companies.
Very poignant and well said.
People need to get more angry our country is dissolving like this.
No one seems to care any more, even the so called left.
Beautiful comment.
..because the Gary Lin model of No Zealand capitalism is ALRIGHT… lol
Hopefully, soon we will get rid of this pandemic.
At least now out in the mainstream:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/429335/fishing-companies-don-t-want-to-hire-local-mariners-say
Accusations of discrimination from experienced mariners and denials from the fishing industry … and no comment yet from govt.
We need to start getting angry about this. Why are government ministers not responding.
That is their job.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Castro but surely it’s time the left started getting a little agitated, even if we are not ready for revolution just yet.
Why is everyone just accepting this as business as usual, or the way things are meant to be.
Absolute BS.
A spokes creep for the fishing industry, Independent Fisheries executive Mark Allison, defended hiring foreign fishing crews by defaming his fellow New Zealanders, claiming that they wouldn’t pass a drugs test.
“Whether you’re an inshore fishery operator or a deep sea factory vessel operator, there’s major shortfalls in trained, skilled and drug-free Kiwis that will go to sea,”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/429335/fishing-companies-don-t-want-to-hire-local-mariners-say
… ‘ The response from the Industry will of course be predictable. New Zealander’s are too soft, too spoilt by the welfare benefit that they don’t want these great jobs. What they are really saying is NZers value their lives and aren’t prepared to work the exploitation wages that Russians and Ukrainians are ‘…
—————————
But Martyn , – wont unionizing workers impinge upon their rights to choose lower wages and conditions and to be treated like dogs and slaves as Roger Douglas, Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley stated and which was cemented into legislation under the original Employment Contracts Act 1991?
I think you are getting a wee bit above your station there mate, esp as the above ‘Big Three’ were only thinking of themselve, – I mean the country,…and acting in their capacity of being buccanee- Oops! I mean officially elected representatives, and diplomats to flog off,…I mean open up our nation to their mates – Whoops sorry again ! ,- I mean foreign investors.
Let’s get the Mahi done by NZ Residents who are “Fake” Advertised for but not hired cause the Local Job Ads are to subvert Visa Law and bring in Foreign Workers.
Fishing, Oil and Gas, Merchant Navy, Winemakers the list just goes on and on.
The Coalition continued to Enable this Fraudulent & Corrupt Bullshit. Immigration Ministers ignore any Submissions and INZ Public Servants the same. They are happy to be told by Job Advertisers that the right People aren’t here.. Skilled and Unskilled. We are sold down the River by our own Taxpayer funded Officials and Public Servants.
The 355,000 Temporary Workers who have been “Permanently” here, by Virtue of one leaves another arrives, have held Wages down and Rents up. Pacific Islands RSE Neighbours and under 30’s Backpackers may be fine but not the extra 100’s of Thousands of Others. Covid proves we don’t need them…
But it’s just come unstuck on the Drilling Rig currently Drilling for new Gas Supply on Maui A Platform. Covid, Quarantines and Costs have just upended the rationale for bringing in the Overseas Personnel as so called “Critical” Workers, who took up precious Quarantine Facilities during Lockdown, and the Jobs have been re-advertised for Skilled Kiwis. The ones the Labour Agent and their Client corruptly claimed to INZ weren’t here after their Fake Advertising Campaign….
Now “Hey Presto” the Skilled Kiwis have been Miraculously found. Hallelujah.
Which totally disproves all the LIES that have been getting fed to MBIE / INZ, and the Media who made Enquiries, by Oil Rig Employers in order to Fraudulently obtain Visas and Screw honest NZ Resident Working People….
There are plenty of Top Quality Workers in many Industries in Aotearoa and it’s time that when a Job is Advertised it’s actually intended to be a Real Job for a Kiwi. What’s been going on is Criminal.
Covid has exposed it…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/121961383/oil-rig-workers-claim-unfair-treatment-in-a-system-rotten-to-the-core
Successive governments have been complicit by ignoring many rorts … to the cost of those that vote for them . .This government will do the bau shuffle.
What commercial fishing boat does NOT damage the environment? I loath fishing with a vengeance. It’s so cruel and nobody ever mentions that, except David Attenborough who only implies it when he shows us his wonderful footage of intelligent fish behaviour. Those horrific shots you see on TV of the nets being pulled up out of the water with thousands of desperate, squirming sentient beings…it makes me sad and furious all at once. Humans are a blight on the planet, by far the most brutal, murderous creature ever to evolve from this crazy experiment called life. And let’s talk about seabird extinction, or bottom trawling, or shark finning, or Maui and Hectors dolphins, or the studies that tell us there will be more bits of fucking plastic in the oceans than fish by 2030, or no fish left at all by 2048! Let’s talk about all of that with our fucking high school kids looking for a career job. Fuck fishing. It’s the rape of the commons in Marxist speak, it’s the ultimate example of the plundering, take it all view of nature. It’s brutal anthropocentrism at it’s ugliest worse. Fuck your fish and chips!
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