CLAIM REJECTED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25247, 28 July 1947, Page 6

CLAIM REJECTED

AUCKLAND WATERSIDE WORKERS

DISMISSAL FOR REFUSAL TO ' , LAY DUNNAGE

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 27. A claim by the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union for payment for the hours between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday rnr a gang dismissed from the Shaw Savill and Albion motor-ship Waiwera that morning, was rejected by the chairman of the Auckland Port Committee (Mr W. J. Cuthbert) in a decision delivered on Saturday morning. The dismissal followed the refusal of the men to lay dunnage in No. 6 hold of the Waiwera, and the union’s claim was heard by the Port Committee on Friday afternoon. “Evidence clearly shows that the men were asked to perform work that Was customarily undertaken by waterside workers, and that waterside workers employed in No. 6 hatch had laid a particular lot of dunnage on which they were working when they refused to carry on,” stated the decision. “I therefore rule that the union is unable to substantiate its claim.”

Waterside workers have refused to lay dunnage since the decision on Wednesday of the ship carpenters’ section of their union not to accept overtime until the claim for an extra 6s an hour against employers had been met. No non-union carpenters have since been engaged, and as a result a serious shortage of men for routine carpentry work has handicapped cargo operations.