CARPENTERS’ PAY ON SHIPS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25245, 25 July 1947, Page 8

CARPENTERS’ PAY ON SHIPS

DISPUTE AT AUCKLAND CLAIM FOR 6D AN HOUR OVER SKILLED RATES AUCKLAND, July 24. Waterside workers employed in the Shaw Savill and Albion Line motorship Waiwera, failed to return to the ship this afternoon after a stop-work meeting of the Auckland branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union. The union is claiming payment from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday for men working in one of the Waiwera’s holds who were dismissed at noon that day after refusing to lay dunnage. This was linked with the withdrawal of casual carpenters from the hold that morning as part of a claim by the ship carpenters’ section of the union for extra payment of 6d an hour. No official advice of the union’s intentions was received by the Waterfront Industry Commission or the shipping company, and the union president (Mr H. Barnas) refused to give its decision to a newspaper reporter. It is expected the men will report at the place of engagement at 8 o’clock to-morrow morning to heat the executive’s views.

In the meantime the company has held produce overnight on the wharf for loading to-morrow morning. The Waiwera is loading produce for Liverpool and is listed to sail early next month with more than 100 passengers. Carpenters Decision

The decision not to accept overtime until the claim for fid an hour extra had been met by the employers was made yesterday at a stop-work meeting of tfre**«bg)’s carpenters’ section of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union. Work in one hold of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liner Rangitiki, which is loading frozen and general cargo for the United Kingdom, stopped shortly before 7 o’clock last night, when no carpenters were available to lay the dunnage. No overtime was accepted this evening. An official of the Auckland Shipping Stevedores’ Association said he understood the principle of the matter in dispute was a claim for fid an hour over the skilled carpenters’ rate of pay, which had been disallowed by the Emergency Disputes Committee which sat under Mr S. Ritchie in June this year.