N.Z. Cargo Delayed By Dock Strike

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 46

N.Z. Cargo Delayed By Dock Strike

(N.Z.PA. Staff Correspondent)

LONDON, July 4. Three ships with cargo from New Zealand have been delayed at Liverpool because of an unofficial strike by nearly 10,000 Merseyside dockers.

Unloading on two is almost complete and the third should have been finished by the end of next week. “When they will finish now is anybody’s guess,” a spokesman for the New Zealand Tonnage Committee said yesteday. The dockers are striking in support of a claim that only they should work a new container base at Aintree in spite of an agreement between the employers and the Transport and General Workers’ Union that the work should be undertaken by members of the Union’s truck drivers’ section. The dockers want to establish their right to work at the depot which is about a mile from the docks —because they fear that the increasing emphasis on containers will eventually mean fewer jobs for them at the dockside.

The men were to meet today to decide whether to return to work. Meanwhile, there has been trouble at two other ports— London and Southampton Tilbury Docks were closed to shipping yesterday because of an overtime ban and work-to-rules by employees who man the locks at the entrance to the docks. Fourteen men arrived for normal duty, but under an agreement 15 are needed to work the locks. No-one was prepared to work overtime to make up the number so the 14 refused to work and the locks stayed closed.

At Southampton, 2000 dockers are continuing their unofficial strike over pay claims. They decided on Tuesday to strike for an indefinite period.