WHARF OFFICIAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 272, 17 November 1941, Page 8

WHARF OFFICIAL

REMOVAL DEMANDED

WATERSIDE UNION'S ACTION

Alleging that "his provocative actions for years had militated against unity, members of the Auckland Waterside Workers' Union, at a special meeting this afternoon, decided unanimously to communicate with the Minister of Labour, Mr. Webb, requesting him to remove from the waterfront Captain H. A. Anderson, wharf superintendent of the Union Steam Ship Company. A further allegation by the union was that on Saturday night Captain Anderson "openly defied the union and the Waterfront Control Commission and endeavoured to work a ship with non-union labour." The resolution passed also expressed the view that the union considered it essential to the national war effort that Captain Anderson should go.

The meeting was the outcome of a dispute between the stevedores and union waterside workers which developed on Saturday night concerning the working of a cargo vessel. The unionists stopped work at 5 p.m., the regular hour when no call for late labour has been made, and the loading was carried on by nonunionists and the shipping company's foreman until 7.20. Then the non-unionists also stopped working. The dispute was confined to the one vessel, five other ships being worked both on Saturday and yesterday. "Conditions Sacrificed" "Permission has to be sought from the Waterfront Commission and the union when a ship is required to be worked on Saturday night or over the week-end, and the arrangement confirmed at 10 o'clock on the Saturday morning," said Mr. H. Barnes, the president of the union, this morning in discussing the position. "The vast majority of the employers have shown a desire to co-operate, and have had the co-operation of the men in any arrangements made, and we have sacrificed, without argument, in the past two years, conditions which it took years to achieve. We have done that in the interests of the fight against Fascism. The attitude of the union is that, while making these sacrifices in order to assist the war effort, it has a duty to its members serving with the armed forces—approximately 70, who are being added to all the time—to maintain the standard of living for which they have gone overseas to fight." Mr. Barnes added that while willing to aid the common effort in the way it was doing, the union would not tolerate any individual using the present circumstances deliberately to smash its conditions. He maintained that in Saturday night's case there were no extenuating circumstances whatever. An order for the men to work could have been given, and should have been given, before 10 a.m. on Saturday, but the employer in this case did not make the approach until approximately 10.30 a.m. In view of all the circumstances, permission to work was refused by the union and also by the Waterfront Control Commission.

Mr. Barnes said that the union's allegation was that the case represented a deliberate attempt to use the conditions caused by the war to break down the working conditions on the waterfront. After permission had been refused for the working of the vessel an attempt was made to work it with the assistance of nonunionists. The non-unionists, however, had gone on to the job in ignorance of the true circumstances, and, as soon as they discovered what these were, they ceased work.

Statement by Controller Captain C. V. Stanich, waterfront controller, said that certain conditions for the working of ships outside ordinary hours were laid down on a national basis and agreed to by the shipping companies and the waterside workers. Those conditions were not carried out on Saturday, and under the terms of the agreement the men could not be called on to work. Provision had been made for the confirmation of the extra hours to be given to the union not later than 10 a.m. on Saturday. Tentative application to the waterfront controller for permission to work on Saturday and Sunday had to bo made on Friday night, at which time also the men were to be informed, subject to confirmation the following morning.

When the text of the union's resolution was referred to him, Captain Anderson had no comment to make.