WATERFRONT STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26221, 19 September 1950, Page 6

WATERFRONT STRIKE

Major Developments Likely Very Soon

POLICE HEAD CONFERS WITH . CABINET

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, September 18. Major developments in the waterfront dispute are expected very soon as a result of a three-hour discussion in the Cabinet this afternoon.

The meeting was attended by the Commissioner of Police (Mr J. B. Young), the Secretary of Labour (Mr H. L. Bockett), the Waterfront Commissioner (Mr A. E. Bockett), and the Chief Law Drafting Officer (Mr H. D. C. Adams). Joined by the Minister of Labour (Mr W. Sullivan) and the AttorneyGeneral (Mr T. C. Webb), these officials remained closeted for half an hour after the Cabinet rose.

The Prime Minister (Mr Holland) said this evening that he had no statement to make yet. The executive committee of the Trade Union Congress will meet Mr Holland to-morrow to discuss the dispute. While on board the steamer express Hinemoa bound for Lyttelton this evening the four South Island members of the executive committee and the secretary (Mr A. B. Grant) received a message asking them to return to Wellington immediately to meet the Prime Minister, said Mr Grant in a radio-telephone call from the ship. They will leave Christchurch by the first aeroplane to-morrow morning.

A warning that unless the dispute is ‘ settled in the next few days all New Zealand-owned ships will be’ tied up and their crews paid off was given by the president of the New Zealand Shipowners’ Federation (Mr K. McLeay) in Napier to-day. The running of the inter-island steamers would not be affected.

Mr McLeay’s announcement surprised shipping and Government circles in Wellington. Interviewed by telephone in Napier to-night, Mr McLeay said that his statement had been issued as a warning. “We want to make it known that we cannot keep our vessels idle and fully manned,” he said. “We cannot continue working in ffie way we are working. Vessels which are immobilised will have to be paid off. We cannot run these services when we are dictated to and told by the watersiders that they will only do certain work. “It is all work or nothing. If there is no settlement, naturally the ships will come to a standstill. The action to be taken will be determined in the next couple of days.” The secretary of the Shipowners’ Federation (Mr G. H. Norman) said m Wellington to-night that a meeting would be held on Thursday, when action would be discussed. No decision by the federation he added, had been handed to the Government. Mr Norman said that some ships would have to be laid up. but he could not say just when. There were about 100 ships on the New Zealand register. Mr Norman added that any action would not affect the inter-island steamers between Wellington and Lyttelton. Picton, or Nelson. Royal Commission The Minister of Labour, Mr Sullivan. said that the Cabinet had been having very serious deliberations on the waterfront position. Some progress had been made on the setting up

of a Royal Commission, and he hoped to be able to make an announcement within a day or two. The executive committee of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union met again to-day, but members left o-night for their homes. There was no quorum at a meeting of the Waterfront Industry Authority this afternoon. The chairman (Judge Dalglish) said that shortly before the meeting he was advised by telephone that the two representatives of the Waterside Workers’ Union, Messrs J. Flood and A. C. Dellaway. would not be present.

The secretary of the union (Mr T. Hill) said to-day that the union had asked the Government a fortnight ago to suspend that authority. His union had made this request “so that no further encroachments would be tnade on watersiders’ rights and conditions until the Royal Commission sat.” The union gave an ultimatum that unless this was done it would withdraw its two representatives.

The meeting of the authority this iliernoon was to discuss general business adjourned from May 8. The composition of the authority is the chairman, two employers’ representatives. Messrs T. S. Marchington and G. G. McFarlane, and two workers’ representatives. The regulations provide that a quorum consists of the chairman. one employers’ representative, and one workers representative. The union's decision to withdraw its representatives means, therefore, that the authority cannot continue its business.