Mr Gibson said he was shocked the union had issued yet another notice a day after his largest customer, Maersk, announced it was transferring about a third of its business and 12 per cent of Auckland's container work to Tauranga.
The giant shipping line said the industrial unrest, which has closed Auckland's container wharves for four days in a combination of strikes and the country's first waterfront lockout since 1951, played a part in its decision to move its Southern Star service.
But union president Garry Parsloe said the lockout had aggravated the disruption and such a decision would have followed months of efforts by Maersk "to play port companies off against each other".
He said he believed the decision was heavily influenced by geography, as most export containers moved by the Maersk service came from Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.
He said the third strike notice was issued after Mr Gibson said he would not meet the union for mediated talks scheduled for tomorrow. He had since cancelled travel plans so he could meet the company today in a bid to achieve progress towards a new collective employment agreement.
"But I'm prepared to pull them [the notices] provided he turns up and bargains with us in good faith," Mr Parsloe said.
Port spokeswoman Catherine Etheredge said the company would not negotiate during a strike "as a matter of principle" but she confirmed its agreement to resume talks today.
She said the next strike would affect four ships, although lifting the latest lockout notice had spared disruption to three other vessels.
The union was miffed when the company failed to turn up for talks scheduled for yesterday, but Ms Etheredge said that was because it found out about the Maersk blow only about an hour beforehand.
STRIKE PLANS
* Maritime Union scheduled to go ahead with a two-day strike starting at 10.30 tonight.
* Notice of another strike, running from 10.30pm on December 22 until 10.30pm on December 23 and from 10.30pm on December 24 until 10.30pm on Christmas Day.
