CARGO HELD UP

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25739, 26 February 1949, Page 6

CARGO HELD UP

DIRT MONEY CLAIM BY RAILWAYMEN WATERSIDERS’ RATES WANTED A cargo of mixed bags of alkaline materials, discharged from the steamer Wellpark at Lyttelton, was held up in Christchurch yesterday morning, railway workers demanding the same rates of dirt money as were paid to waterside workers on the railway siding at Lyttelton. Some trucks were handled at E shed in Christchurch by workers at the ordinary rate of dirt money of 2d an hour before the men heard that the waterside workers were being paid Is 6d an hour dirt money. The demand was made for the same rate. It was not met. and the workers declined to handle the rest of the cargo. An offer to pay an extra 6d an hour was made by the Railway Department in the afternoon, but it was rejected by representatives of the workers. Questioned about the dispute, Mr A. B. Grant (secretary of the Canterbury branch of the A.S.R.S.) declined to make any statement. “The matter has been referred to our executive in Wellington and, I understand, to the head office of the Railway Department,” said Mr Grant. •