AUCKLAND PORT DISPUTE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25249, 30 July 1947, Page 6

AUCKLAND PORT DISPUTE

Two More Vessels Involved

460 MEN INCUR PENALTY (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 29. Ships from which labour has been dismissed in the Auckland dunnage dispute are being declared preference vessels by the employers with permission from the Waterfront Industry Commission. This was put into effect at this morning’s labour call and means that no other ships can be manned until men have been found ’to replace the dismissed men. * Pises put out at the labour engagement bureau this morning for the affected ships were not picked up and no response was made to a further call made for other available union labour. As a result, the total of men under the commission’s three-day penalty was brought to 460. Five ships are now affected. The collier Omana, which is not involved in the dispute, will be given first preference for labour to-morrow morning, and a call will then be made for workers to relieve the men who will be absent on a day off. Discs will then be put out for men to take the place of the labdur dismissed for failure to lay dunnage in the Waiwera, Largs Bay, Rangitiki, Chanda, and Matua. Meeting of Stevedores It is expected that about 200 unionists will be available for the five ships and if they refuse to lift the discs they will join the number under penalty. The Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores’ Association met to-day to consider developments. “The issue in this dispute is quite clear,” said the manager (Mr E. C. Buscke) after the meeting. “The simple fact is that the waterside workers are refusing to undertake work which has always been part of their duties. The chairman of the port committee, when the union laid its case before him last week, clearly ruled that the men had merely been asked to perform,work which was customarily performed’ by waterside workers. “By refusing to abide by this decision the union is creating a very serious position which, if they continue in their attitude, will increase day by day,” Mr Buscke continued. “When the stage is reached that dunnage must be laid before cargo can be loaded the employer has no option but to dismiss the men.”

Passenger Ship Delayed Two gangs were dismissed from the Union Steam Ship Company’s passenger motor-ship Matua for refusing to lay dunnage today. A company official said that the Matua had never required carpenters aboard her. Her departure for Suva has now been set back until Thursday. The Chanda, loading for Singapore, Rangoon, and Colombo, also became involved in the dispute when one gang was dismissed for a similar reason. Work came to a standstill in a further hatch of the liner Largs Bay. The national and Auckland president of the Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr H. Barnes) was one of the men dismissed from the Matua.. These dismissals entail a penalty from engagement until the job is finished with a minimum of two and a maximum of six days.