Four-Hour Stoppage By Seamen In All Ports

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31237, 8 December 1966, Page 1

Four-Hour Stoppage By Seamen In All Ports

Seamen and engineer members of the Federated Seamen’s Union refused work from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. yesterday. Fifty ships and about 1000 men were affected, the Press Association reports.

The action was in protest against the Union Steam Ship Company’s decision to abandon the Pacific coast run to the United States and Canada, said the president of the union (Mr W. Martin.).

The stoppage was not directed against the travelling public and work continued as usual on the Welling-ton-Picton ferries, Mr Martin said.

The stoppage ended before the sailing times of the Wel-lington-Lyttelton ferries and these ships were not affected, said Mr Martin.

The striking seamen stayed aboard their ships, in the messrooms.

Work normally done by seamen, including winch operating during cargo handling, was not done in their absence by waterside workers. At Lyttelton seamen aboard New Zealand-registered vessels stopped work at 1 p.m. Those aboard the inter-island steamer Maori stopped work from 8 a.m. until noon. Normal work will be resumed today. The Lyttelton agent for the union, Mr T. A. Kelly, said the stoppage was intended to further the union’s efforts to persuade the Government to start a national shipping line. During the last five years speedy, modern German pas-senger-cargo vessels have made , strong penetration into the trade between New Zealand and the Pacific coast of North America, once a strongly entrenched Union Steam Ship Company trade. The German vessels, which are refrigerated, have since supplemented trade with New Zealand and the Atlantic coast.

Mr R. A. Johnson, Auckland manager of the Union Company, said: "The whole thing seems rather pointless to me. It doesn’t show any degree of responsibility. All they are doing is trying to make it more difficult for other trades. “As far as I am concerned the (American) trade is not there. They are flogging a dead horse.

“We are looking to developing and stimulating other trades with roll-on roll-off vessels.

“The seamen should let this go and pay more attention to the trade we have got,” Mr Johnson said.

Mr Martin said in Wellington that the stoppage was in support of the union members who were protesting aboard the Waihemo in Dunedin, and against the withdrawal of New Zealand vessels from a New Zealand trade across the Pacific. “New Zealand seamen feel this action has given more control of the New Zealand economy to foreign shipowners and overseas interests,” he said.

The reason given for the withdrawal by the Union Company and the P and Cidominated Conference Lines was that the trade was no longer economical, he said. “This is contrary to the facts, as only two days after the Union Company announce-

ment, the German-owned Columbus Line expressed their intention of increasing sailings and bringing more ships into this trade. “The policy of the Union Company, at the behest of their parent, the P. and O. Shipping Company, has been over the years gradually to withdraw New Zealand-flag ships from traditional routes of the trans-Tasman and transpacific passenger ships. Their

present policy means in effect that more and more New Zealand seamen will be put out of work, including 50 men from the Waihemo and Waitemata, and that more valuable foreign exchange will be expended,” said Mr Martin. ' “To clear any erroneous opinions the general public or the shipowners may have of the seamen of New Zealand, we would emphatically state that we are very conscious of

the effects of foreign shipping monopolies, not only on our welfare but on the welfare of all New Zealanders, including farmers, importers and the public in general, and the? subsequent effects of increased freight charges on the producers’ and consumers’ pockets. “We call upon the Government to take note of the action of the United States Government of investigating the latest imposition of a 12) per cent freight rise and urge the New Zealand Government to take all possible steps to protect the employment of New Zealand seamen,” Mr Martin said.