Meeting Tomorrow

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 1

Meeting Tomorrow

(HZ. Press Association)

TAURANGA, Sept. 19. Members of the Mount Maunganui and Tauranga Waterfront Workers’ Union will hold another stopwork meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss ihe dispute over winch gear. The dispute has kept the port of Tauranga idle for seven days.

Negotiations between the union and the Tauranga branch of the Port Employers’ Association do not seem likely until after Wednesday’s meeting.

The 400 members of the union were dismissed this morning from their jobs on the nine ships berthed at the Mount Maunganui wharf. The union decided not to return to work under the conditions laid down by the employers. The secretary of the union, Mr D. W. Shaw, said the decision did not meet with any opposition in the union. The dispute is over the working of the derrick winch gear on the Kaisei Maru.

The Port Conciliation Committee has already decided that the union’s allegations on the danger of the gear on the log ship are unjust and that work should continue.

Forest Products, which supplies the bulk of pine logs exported over the Mount Maunganui wharf, had not sent any logs to the port of Tauranga since last Tuesday, Mr J. T. Currie, president of the company, said today. The company had adjusted its logging and wood usage and would reorganise transport to meet the requirements of the shipping situation at Mount Maunganui, as it had done in the past, when work began, he said.

“1 understand the port is working at maximum capacity and cannot handle any more pine log exports anyway.”

Mr Currie said it was unfortunate that the strike should come at a time when New Zealand was trying to lift her overseas exports. No matter what its duration, it would cost the country money.

The strike was costing Forest Products “a considerable amount of money” every day, said Mr Currie.