Watersiders Object To Use Of Crew

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30531, 28 August 1964, Page 5

Watersiders Object To Use Of Crew

No work was done on the Port Denison at Lyttelton yesterday morning because of a dispute about the opening and closing of hatches. She was idle from 9.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mr R. Fergus, secretary of | the Lyttelton Waterside Workers’ Union, said the dispute arose because the ship used members of the crew to open hatches instead of letting some of the 97 waterside workers aboard do the job as: they were entitled to do. Mr Fergus said this was aj follow-up to the Port Employ-1 ers’ Association’s recent attempts to use crew labour at I Bluff and Wellington, which caused stoppages and time lost at both ports. It was obvious, he said, that the employers were still trying to get around the provisions of the award, in spite of their assurances of the need for better understanding and co-operation. After a meeting of the Port Conciliation Committee,

called by the employers, work resumed in the afternoon. Before the dispute began at 9.30 a.m., rain had already prevented work on the ship. Mr Fergus said work resumed on the basis that watersiders, under supervision, were to remove and replace all hatches. The 6227-ton motor-vessel is owned by the Dornoch Shipping Company, Ltd., chartered by the Port Line, and at present discharging Atlantic coast cargo to the agency of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Built on a lake near Stockholm, she has been trading to Lyttelton since early 1962. In the past, members of the crew have operated the electric winch to open and close the modern steel hatch lids, a job which takes only a few minutes. A crew can open or close all the ship’s hatches in 40 minutes. Originally scheduled to sail last evening, the Port Denison is now expected to leave for Dunedin today.