Merchant Service Guild To Confer In Auckland

Press, Volume C, Issue 29565, 14 July 1961, Page 14

Merchant Service Guild To Confer In Auckland

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 13. Executive members of the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild will fly to Auckland tomorrow morning for a meeting with Auckland members involved in the dispute with the Union Steam Ship Company. By tonight, 13 ships were idle through the deck officers having refused to take them to sea, and three more are expected to liecome idle tomorrow.

The majority of the officers involved in the strike are at Auckland. The general secretary of the Merchant Service Guild (Captain J. W. Dickinson) will attend the meeting with the Auckland officers, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. The issue at stake will be whether or not to continue with the strike. So far, 30 officers have been suspended by the company from duty throughout the country, and with four ships laid up for survey, and more ships expected to be idle on Saturday, nearly half of the company’s fleet will be out of action. Captain Dickinson said today that a meeting of members had been held in Wellington this morning, as scheduled, but no statement would be made until after the Auckland meeting. Outcome Awaited Both the assistant-Secre-tary of Labour (Mr H Parsonage) and a Union Steam Ship Company spokesman said they were awaiting the outcome of tomorrow afternoon's meeting before deciding on future moves. The ships now affected, according to a company spokes-

man, are the Kaimiro, Konini, Karu, Kaitawa, and Tarawera at Auckland, the Kaitangata at Portland, the Kokiri at Wellington, the Kanna and Korowai at - Nelson, th Kaimai, Kaitoke, and the Navua at Dunedin (the latter having moved there from Bluff for safety reasons), and the Waimea at Lyttelton Expected to be affected tomorrow are the Katui, Kaiapoi. and Waikare at Auckland The future of several hundred seamen who are being

retained on the idle ships hinges on the result of the Auckland meeting tomorrow, and should the strike continue, it is expected the company will waste no time in paying them off and laying up the ships.