Watersiders Back At New Plymouth

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 3

Watersiders Back At New Plymouth

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, September 7. Work resumed on the New Plymouth waterfront today after striking watersiders reached agreement with the British Phosphate Commission. Watersiders walked off the phosphate freighter Riguluv on Thursday morning because the ship’s crew removed the hatches and beams.

They returned to work at the normal time this morning but neither side would make any comment on how the agreement was reached. The situation was described as an “uneasy truce” while the dispute over the removal of hatches was still not solved.

Negotiations between the British Phosphate Commission and the Waterside Workers’ Union were being held in Wellington today, a spokesman for the Phosphate Commission said. The hatches removed last Thursday remained off until yesterday when the crew members replaced them. The crew removed the hatches again this morning when the watersiders came on board at 8 a.m. and work started. The master of the 10,666-ton Ringulv, Captain A. Olsen, said all five hatches were working and the covers would remain off until discharge of the 15,000 tons of phosphate was completed. The removal of the beams and hatches was a specialist job done by his crew in every port in the world they cafieu at, he said.

The ship, which was originally scheduled to sail tomorrow, will now leave on Thursday night or Friday. Work began this morning, without the 40 watersiders' involved being paid for the two days and a half lost over the strike, said the New Plymouth branch manager of the Waterfront Industry Commission (Mr J. A. Doherty). He denied a report that the watersiders were demand-'

ing payment for the two days and a half lost. Neither the commission nor the Phosphate Commission knew anything about such a claim, he said. Only the 40 watersiders involved started work on the ship and no extra men were put on, said Mr Doherty. Two other ships were worked at the port. They are the coaster Holmdale, which arrived yesterday, and the 11,272-ton Sussex, which berthed this morning.