No Melbourne Call Meantime

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32164, 6 December 1969, Page 1

No Melbourne Call Meantime

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY, December 5. The Marama would not sail for Melbourne from New Zealand until the dispute involving her in Melbourne had been settled, a spokesman for the Union Steam Ship Company said today.

“It’s no use sending her to Melbourne before the dispute there is over,” the spokesman said. “We’ve been told by Wellington that meantime the Marama will do a couple of trips between Wellington and Lyttelton to shift the backlog of cargo that has built up during the New Zealand shipping strike.”

A demarcation dispute between the Transport Workers’ Union and the Federated Clerks’ Union has kept the Marama’s Melbourne terminal idle since mid-October.

Clerks are seeking the rights to do clerical work associated with the packing of Marama cargo in freight forwarders’ depots. The work is done by Transport Workers’ Union members at present. Because of a black ban on the terminal by the transport workers, cargo landed from the Marama on October 14 is still piled up on the dock.

A report on the dispute is expected from the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration (Commission in the next week

or so and the dispute could be resolved then.

The spokesman said the Marama’s sister ship, the • Maheno, was expected to sail for Sydney from Wellington ■ or December 12 or 13. However, these dates were subject to settlement of the dispute in New Zealand over container cargoes. Relief in Australia that the ’ Wainui dispute is over is . tinged with concern about ! the new threat to the roll-on Tasman service. New Zealand trade officials ■ are dismayed by the bans in : Wellington and Christchurch ! on containers not packed on : wharves. The great bulk of general t cargo between New South : Wales and Victoria and New Zealand is now carried in the i new ships. Any further dis- • ruption to the service could I have serious effects on trade. Both the Maheno and the ! Marama have missed several voyages across the Tasman I and thousands of tons of I cargo is awaiting shipment to i New Zealand in Sydney and : Melbourtfe.