Railways Recruit Extra Men For Goods Sheds

Press, Volume C, Issue 29454, 4 March 1961, Page 9

Railways Recruit Extra Men For Goods Sheds

An additional 24 men had been recruited by the Railways Department to work in the goods sheds, and more would probably be employed after medical tests, said the General Manager of Railways (Mr A. T. Gandell) yesterday. Also, arrangements had been made for a further 27 employees of the department who were normally employed on track maintenance to be temporarily employed in the goods sheds. Mr Gandell said the number of men who had applied for jobs had been pleasing, for it was usually difficult to find permanent day-time workers for the goods sheds. If more men came forward the department would be able to implement the promise it made to employ another 40 men to help relieve the congestion in the goods sheds. At a meeting on Thursday of parties affected by the congestion of goods in the railway goods sheds it was decided that the first problem to overcome was the clearing of goods from the sheds and to have more unloaded waggons available.

The additional staff, combined with the opening of warehouses after hours by arrangement and the continued co-operation of carriers, would do much to help with the problem of the shortage of waggons, he said. Clearing of Backlog

The response to the railways call for extra labour had been quite good, said the District Traffic Manager (Mr C. J. Millin). However, even with the extra men in the sheds it would be about four weeks before the backlog of goods was cleared. Mr Millan said there was no intention of calling in the Army to help with the unloading of waggons as had been suggested at the meeting on Thursday of parties affected by the congestion. No matter how big the labour force, there first had to be key workers such as crane drivers, hoist operators, and supervisors.

Provided the warehousemen co-operated, the carriers would do all they could to help, said the president of the Canterbury Carriers’ Association (Mr E. V. Etwell) yesterday. The support of the Manufacturers’ Association was also given by the president (Mr R. H. Stewart).

In Lyttelton Harbour yesterday afternoon there were only two ships in the stream, the Port Launceston and the Tasmania Star. Three ships, the River City, Port Chalmers, and Kaitoa, moved from the stream into berths in the morning. The Calm, Tainui, and Kuaka were not being worked because of shortage of labour. The Port Montreal, Tenwa Ms.ru, Port Adelaide, Armagh and Waikere were being worked but by reduced gangs.