Plea For Reopened Oyster Season

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32018, 19 June 1969, Page 1

Plea For Reopened Oyster Season

Help in having thei oyster season reopened! was sought yesterdayi from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) by a deputation comprising representatives of Christchurch wholesalers, retailers and workers.

Mr J. S. Rennie, managing director of Fish Processing, Ltd, said afterwards that the deputation had been formed because so many men were out of work in Christchurch through no fault of their own. These men were finding it difficult to get other employment because prospective employers thought the season might reopen at any time and they would lose them again.

Mr Rennie said that he was concerned for the men—some

!of whom were young married men with fairly heavy commitments—and he was also concerned that if the dispute continued for much longer many of the staff might be lost to the industry. “These are skilled men,” he said, “and they could not easily be replaced. If we lose them now we may not get them back again. As it is, some of them probably won’t come back this season or next season either. They get good money, but the shorter season made it less attractive and : for some this closing is the ■ last straw.”

An important point was that the men who were being lost were perhaps the best workers, and this would have

a long-term effect on the industry, Mr Rennie said. Mr Rennie said that it seemed particularly unfair that a whole industry should be closed to settle an industrial dispute, and since there seemed to be agreement on most of the points he could not understand the continued

stoppage. “We feel they should work and talk about the last details at the same time, instead of sitting back and doing nothing,” he said. Another aspect which had concerned the deputation was that Christchurch seemed to be the only centre which was concerned about reopening the season. “Elsewhere they just seem to be sitting back. It seems to be a stalemate. But it’s

getting so late It will be difficult to get the season going again,” Mr Rennie said.

Another member of the deputation, the secretary of the Canterbury Oyster Openers’ Union (Mr L. Lee), said that if the season were not reopened soon they would have great difficulty opening it next year.

“Our men can’t afford this sort of thing,” he said. “It’s getting to the stage where they will be better off to get a regular job and stick to it” Mt Lee said that he could not speak for the fishermen, but he believed that the position was the same with many of them. “If they don’t go back to fishing soon, they won’t go back next season eithei—or not till they are good and ready.”