WIDESPREAD LOSSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 116, 12 November 1938, Page 10

WIDESPREAD LOSSES

BUSINESS CONCERNS

FACTORIES MIGHT CLOSE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, November 11. A sum approaching £15,000 has probably been lost in wages by the waterside workers of Auckland as a result of the waterfront dispute. The workers

themselves do not seem greatly concerned about the position, as individuals, among them hold that cargoes will still have to be worked, involving fairly extensive payments, at overtime rates.

It is stated on good authority that the average wages bill for waterside workers during normal periods of port activity runs to about £10,000 a^week, and the estimate of £15,000 lost in wages is based on the fact that the hold-up extended for about a week and a half.

If the view of individual watersiders is correct and their wages have not been lost but only deferred, no such avenue of escape exists in the case of shipping companies or for various trade interests which are innocent third parties in the dispute.

All ships which are lying idle alongside the city's, wharves are fully manned and wages have still to be paid to crews. In addition, while the ships are not working, they are not earning and the payment of harbour dues represents a further dead loss. For some of the larger vessels the dispute is costing shipowners at least £.600 a day for each of the ships concerned.

Losses in the ordinary commercial sphere are even more difficult to estimate. The late delivery of imported goods or inability to ship local goods to other ports all means a steady inroad on legitimate trading profits, as well as untold inconvenience. Numerous individual traders and business concerns are involved and the losses will be as heavy as they are widespread.