Mediation between staff and management at the Ports of Auckland has ended with little progress between the warring parties.
Tensions were high with a week of strikes due to start on February 24, but the Maritime Union said no progress was made.
The meeting between management and Maritime Union negotiators was adjourned after five hours.
The parties have agreed to resume mediation if either side brings something new to the table.
Union national president Garry Parsloe said they had a proposal to try to find a way forward but they were met with indifference by management, which he said had a 'take it or leave it' approach to their offer.
He said negotiators were particularly upset at comments by management that workers seeking to maintain the one guaranteed weekend off they have every three weeks was 'motherhood and apple pie stuff'.
'This is a company that makes great claims in its corporate mission statement towards its concern for its workers' wellbeing, but those values seem to have little to do with how they actually think and behave.'
A statement from the Ports of Auckland said it would be difficult to set a time for further mediation as the company would need time to manage upcoming strikes.
It said the planned week of strikes would cost staff about $NZ450,000 ($A350,617) in lost wages.
The union represents about 290 of the staff of more than 550 at the port.
Union members have resisted the company's plans to introduce more flexible working hours, and its threat to make all union members redundant and contract out their jobs.
The upcoming seven-day strike, the eighth since the dispute began, comes on top of a seven-day partial strike next week, where union members are refusing to work with containers moved by outsourced labour at the port's subsidiary Conlinxx.
