While the negotiations between the Port Chalmers branch of the union and Port Otago do not appear headed for a similar confrontation, the southern branch supports the national executive's stance and actions.
The union's national executive is taking legal advice about yesterday's sackings and may be able to mount a court challenge.
Ports of Auckland announced yesterday its almost 300 striking staff would be made redundant shortly as it moved to a "competitive stevedoring model" and would contract out the work to three stevedoring companies, to be fully operational by the end of next month.
The industrial action has spread to Tauranga and Wellington, where ships have been held up, and now to Lyttelton Port of Christchurch, with the Maritime Union blacklisting ships loaded by non-union labour.
Late yesterday, the Employment Court ordered union workers to work on the container ship Lisa Schulte, which is now in port, following the port company's injunction application.
Maritime Union representative Les Wells said he was angry at the decision but the union would honour the order, APNZ reported.
Port Chalmers Maritime Union branch secretary Phil Adams said similar action was unlikely at Port Chalmers as no non-union-loaded vessels were scheduled to visit the port.
Mr Adams said a "small contingent" of union members from Port Chalmers would attend a rally in Auckland on Saturday, and members had already been making financial contributions to the striking workers.
Contract negotiations with Port Otago would centre on the two-year collective agreement which would expire in July, Mr Adams said, noting its hours and conditions were "similar" to the union's collective agreement with Ports of Auckland.
Mr Adams believed Port Otago management did not want to make changes at Port Chalmers and the groups were working together on health and safety covering night shifts and eight-hour shifts, which are worked for five days, spread over seven days.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket said yesterday there was no need for any radical change to Port Chalmers work practices.
"We have the best model for a business our size", but he cautioned that health and safety and productivity needed "fine-tuning through small steps to meet market conditions".
While reluctant to comment on negotiations which were yet to begin, he said Port Otago "would have to reject any restrictive work practices", if they were to became part of bargaining.
Maritime Union national president Garry Parsloe said when contacted there was an argument that, under good-faith bargaining, workers striking, or in collective bargaining rounds, could not be sacked or replaced.
"We may well challenge them [in the courts], as our lawyer thinks we have got a case.
"This is not the end. It is the start," Mr Parsloe said of the Auckland sackings, which he understood were effective immediately.
Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson said the company, until now, had been "constrained by practices which have reduced the port's competitiveness and, in recent months, industrial action, which has lost us significant business [container ships switching to Tauranga]".
The company's decision follows bargaining that began last August.
Strikes of 24 hours have escalated to a 12th strike notice forewarning the present four consecutive weeks of strike action.
The dispute has been multi-faceted, including work conditions, rostering, flexibility and claims and counter-claims of workforce casualisation by contracting out.
Mr Adams said the Auckland redundancies were not a surprise, as they had "always been indicated as an option" by the company, but he questioned the "legalities".
In a statement yesterday, Ports of Auckland said it had "a right to introduce competing stevedores under the expired collective agreement with [the Maritime Union]".
