HANDLING CARGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 5

HANDLING CARGO.

(To the Editor.) Sir. —With- reference to an article id Monday's issue dealing witu the handling of cargo in this port. We have been instructed from the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union to deal with the [ paragraph -which states that cargo lis handled very slowly, and further ! that the fault is with the human ele- | ment, the mechanical appliances being capable of all required of them. "What Iwe want," said one stevedore, bitterly, "is a charge of dynamite under the men, they won't put cargo into the elin.ss fast enough." We beg to eubmit the following facts:—Firstly, Mr. 11. Mackenzie, chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board, speaking at the annual dinner of the Commercial Travellers' Club recently held, stated that "as far ad Auckland Harbour equipment was concerned he thought it a very fine thing that a 5000----ton steamer could be discharged in Auckland two days qyftker than in any other port in Australasia," etc. Secondly, the report of Mr. Golden, traffic manasfr (A.H.B.)i dealing with the e.s. Kurow, discharging and loading 3935 tons general cargo and produce, showa 2S*i tons per hour —or a total of 1792 tons per eight-hour day, working nine gangs. To show that this is not an isolated ca.=e, s.s. Flora discharging a totally different working aeren gangs, dealt with 974 tons, averaging 151 tons per hour, or over 1200 tons per day, whicli is very satisfactory. Now, sir, it is obvious to anyone outside a lunatic asylum, that the human element is tht» I determining factor. No mechanical appliance can lift slings quicker than they nre filled by the men below and return faster than the sorters and truckers ashore deal with tliem. The Auckland stevedores are making a large profit out lof the labour of their fellow-countrymen, the waterside workers, but as the statel ment we take exception to shows they are still not satisfied. Such a greedy and soulles3 attitude on the part of the employers is one of the prime causes of the industrial unrest that oppresses society. In the opinion of our union, if any dynamite ia required in connection with wliarf working at this port, it should be employed to lift the local I men's wages to at least the Australian I level. At present we are among the most efficient workers of the world, I and the poorest paid in our particular industry.—We are, etc., N. NUGENT, Vice-Prea. IL lILLLIER, Secretary.