An Auckland photographer has been on the picket lines shooting portraits of striking Ports of Auckland workers in an attempt to "put a face to the struggle".
Fiona Jack has started plastering the city with posters of some of the 70 portraits she captured to push the message that the dispute is not about "the union versus the company, it's about the hundreds of lives involved".
The Maritime Union and the Ports of Auckland have been locked in a fourth-month industrial dispute after management wanted permanent staff to become casual workers.
It offered a 10 per cent pay increase in return but staff wanted a smaller pay rise in exchange for permanent hours.
The groups are now battling it out in the Employment Court.
"I want to honour the strength of their community and their struggle," said Jack.
"I want people to see that they are not thugs, they are lovely, regular people with families and I want to help the public understand they are individuals.
"I don't know any of the port workers, well I didn't when I first started photographing them. But I have a strong legacy in unions and worry about the precedent set by firing [almost] 300 workers in the middle of negotiations and what impact that will have on other workers in New Zealand."
The Avondale resident's posters feature only the faces of the striking workers. Jack didn't add slogans because she didn't want to create "judgement".
"While I was putting up the posters, people would automatically know that they were port workers. I was a bit surprised that people would immediately identify them as port workers," she said.
Last week the port agreed to halt plans to make almost 300 workers redundant and to hire other workers to do their jobs until the matter could be heard by the Employment Court next week.
Port protests on Tamaki Dr have been subject to claims of intimidation and bullying.http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/6606854/Faces-of-the-port-strike
After talking with Tarati again we went over the ethics of photographing something that we haven't experienced ourselves.
It would be pretty hypocritical to take photographs depicting homelessness without getting involved and making an actual difference in the homeless community. You can't really speak on behalf of someone if you don't really know what they're going through.
getting involved.
giving a voice to the people
not reenacting or imitating
straight from the source
So once again we've come up with a change of plan again.
NEW PLAN. lol
Photographing OUR OWN LIVES.
-Identity
-Individualism
-Something or someplace, that connects to us, that shows what our beliefs are, or a glimpse of our lives or history or story.
Proposal will have to change again..
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