28 February, 2011
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun reached out last week to New Zealand trade union affiliates in the immediate aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The 6.3 magnitude quake has claimed the lives of 147 people, with another 200 persons missing and feared dead.
National Distribution Union (NDU) General Secretary Robert Reid said the building his union’s offices are housed and NDU partly owns, the Christchurch Trade Union Centre on Armagh Street, was badly damaged from the quake. Return to work there is uncertain. The NDU’s Christchurch offices are on the fourth floor of the labour building.
“All NDU staff and we think all our members in Christchurch are OK, although many have damage to their homes,” he added.
NDU General Secretary Robert Reid
National Secretary Andrew Little of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said, “EPMU personnel are unscathed but we are still ascertaining the impact on our members and their workplaces.”
Little said Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, suffered “a lot of destruction and it will take a long time for the city to recover.” He added: “The shake was a very violent one.”
Some 600 search and rescue teams are at work in Christchurch and the estimated damages range from NZ$4 billion (US$3 billion) to NZ$16 billion (US$12 billion.)
The 22 February earthquake is the second in less than six months in New Zealand. In September, a 7.1 quake hit some 40 kilometres from Christchurch, but caused less damage because it occurred in a less populated and rural area. Several Kiwi cities sit atop a series of faults connected to Alpine Fault, a subterranean mass where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates slide across one another.