THE AUCKLAND WATERFRONT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25953, 5 November 1949, Page 6

THE AUCKLAND WATERFRONT

RESUMPTION OF NORMAL WORK

ALL SHIPS FULLY MANNED

(New Zealand Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 4. More than 900 waterside workers were engaged to-day to man idle and partly working ships at the Auckland wharves. Union members who had been absent from the waterfront on penalty for refusing to work ships during the overtime labour replacement dispute made up the bulk of the number, only a few non-unionists being required.

As a result of the settlement of the dispute on Thursday, the port was worked normally for the first day since October 26. In spite of the heavy demand for labour, all ships were fully manned. Four ships resumed work after several days’ complete idleness. They were the Huntingdon, loading for London and Cardiff, which became idle on Monday, and the Government motor-vessel Maui Pomare, the collier Kartigi, and the intercolonial freighter Kaitoke, on which work stopped on Tuesday. Most of the other ships required labour to man idle hatches. They included the liner Rangitoto, where only one of the seven hatches had been worked since Monday, and the freighter Northumberland, on which two of the six hatches stopped discharging British cargo on Monday. The Rangitoto is expected to sail at 5 pm. to-morrow for Southampton and London.

This afternoon non-unionists were engaged to replace unionists who did not accept overtime this evening. Unionists and non-union replacements worked together in the evening for the first night since the dispute began.

A stop-work meeting of the Auckiand branch of the Waterside Workers Union will be held on Monday to hear reports from national officers on the dispute* On Monday the Waterfront Industry Commission at Wellington will hear submissions from ject Uni ° n Bnd employers on the sub-