Maritime unions lobby Chief Minister

Thu, 21 Apr 2011

Two maritime unions are trying to get the Manx public to lobby the Chief Minister about what they believe is a threat to local jobs.

The RMT and Nautilus International have arranged for details of the campaign to be sent out with this week's Courier.

They're asking people to 'Save the Steam Packet' as they're worried that rival shipping firm Mezeron still poses a threat to workers at the company.

The postcard that's being sent out with the newspaper claims Mezeron is able to undercut freight prices by employing cheap labour from Eastern Europe.

The unions don't think the Isle of Man has proper laws in place to protect marine workers.

The UK has regulations that mean staff would transfer to a new employer if their work is taken over by another company, but the same rules don't apply here.

People are being asked to pledge their support by sending the postcard to Tony Brown.