Dispute in Auckland Waterfront Extends To Second Sip

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14711, 1 July 1948, Page 3

Dis pute in Auckland Waterfront Extends To Second Sip

Workers 5 Refusal To Lift Hatches

Further Hold-ups At Port Anticipated (P.A.) Auckland, today. An extension of the prolonged Mountpark dispute at Auckland occurred yesterday morning when two gangs of Auckland waterside workers discharging sugar at Chelsea from the .British steamer Broompark were dismissed under three days’ pepalty for refusing to lift hatches from two holds by hand.

The men subsequently attempted to move the hatches by slings and this was stopned by turning off steam to the Broom park’s winches. Two hatches are still working normally, but the Waterfront Industry Commission is not granting a requisition from the ship’s agents, the Union Steam Ship Company, for gangs for the two idle hatches this morning.

The Broompark is a unit of the Denholm Lino, to which the idle wheat ship Mountpark also belongs. She is a larger shin than the Mountnark and was built in Bio United States during the war. The Broomnark arrived last week from Cairns. Queensland, with more than 9000 tens of sugar, of. which 1400 tons have now been landed. Sugar stocks at the Chelsea refinery arc satisfactory, but any delay in the despatch of the Broomnark may also delay the berthing of the next sugar ship, the Belos, arriving this month from Qucnsland. One overseas ship, apart from the Mount nark, and a large number of coastal vessels will he idle today as a result of the Auckland waterfront dispute. Under the Waterfront Industry Commission’s labour preference policy for the Mountpark no labour is available for the British steamer City of Chelmsford, which berthed yesterday at Hobson Wharf to load more than'2ooo tons of wool, nelts and other produce for New York, Boston and Montreal.