CREW PAID OFF

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 3

CREW PAID OFF

Kaimanawa Mav Be Sold (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 19. The 2515-ton cargo ship Kaimanawa will be laid up in Auckland from midnight tomorrow until further notice.

For three weeks the Union Steam Ship Company has been trying to get a crew for the ship, described by union officials as a “slum ship.”

So far the delay had cost the company £BOOO. The company has decided to pay off the 15 men who are on board her. The union believes that the vessel, built in 1944, will be up for sale in about two months, but Mr R. A. Johnson, the company’s Auckland manager, said: “She is not necessarily up for sale at this stage.” He said the union had “definitely forced us to lay up the ship.”

Mr W. Martin, the national president of the Seamen’s Union, said the Kaimanawa and other ships had been the subject of discussion with the company since August. “She is out-dated and her accommodation is sub-stan-dard,” he said. The company had no intention of raising the standard of accommodation on this and on some collier vessels. The Kaimanawa’s full complement was 29 and she was

short of eight able seamen, one ordinary seaman, a deck boy and four engine-room men.

The ship has been the subject of accommodation disputes for some time. In August her survey was brought forward because no crew could be found. She returned to service at the end of the month and the present dispute started.