Delay On Appointment Of Conciliator

Press, Issue 32345, 10 July 1970, Page 1

Delay On Appointment Of Conciliator

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 9. The Secretary of Marine (Mr R. N. Kerr) this afternoon met parties involved in the Cook Strait rail ferries dispute and supplied them with a list of names of possible conciliators.

Late tonight Mr Kerr said he had been contacted by the Seamen’s Union, but had received no word from the Merchant Service Guild. The seamen advised him that they had been unable to finalise their selection of name tonight and would contact him again in the morning.

“This means there can be no progress until tomorrow," Mr Kerr said. He hoped there would be some overlap in any lists of names approved by the two parties. The meeting of the two parties with Mr Kerr, originally scheduled for this morning, did not take place until this afternoon because of a Seamen’s Union stop-work meeting. If the parties do not reach agreement voluntarily by 6 p.m. tomorrow Mr Kerr will appoint a compulsory conciliator. He said he had been hoping to have a decision tonight.

The guild had no axe to grind in the case of the dismissed seamen, and most certainly had no intentions of victimising the men, the general secretary of the guild (Captain J. W. Dickinson) said in an interview today. They would be acceptable for re-employment on the ferries, after a reasonable service in other ships and, provided they carried out their duties and accepted the responsibilities associated with their jobs, there was no reason why they could not remain in the rail ferries foi the rest of their sea-going careers. PUNISHMENT “The offences committed by these men will not be held against them, but it is essential that they accept their punishment on this occasion for disobedience to the master of the ship,” he said. Captain Dickinson said a reported statement yesterday by the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) “that officers were deliberately attempting to stop any settlement in the rail ferry dispute in the same manner as was their action in the Wainui dispute” was at complete variance with a statement by the secretary of the federation (Mr W. J. Knox) in his annual report. “Mr Knox stated on April 30 that the Wainui dispute had been unnecessarily prolonged by a section of the Seamen’s Union seeking to destroy their own union and divide and smash trade union movement,” Captain Dickinson said. He said Mr Skinner had now apparently decided in the face of strong industrial pressure to conceal the actions of a section of the Seamen’s Union by pointing an accusing finger at Guild and Engineers’ Institute members, whom he now considered were at fault not only in the Wainui dispute but also in the rail ferries dispute.

“I would point out that it was the seamen who refused to take the Aranui to sea and the Aramoana from the floating dock, and not the officers,” Captain Dickinson said. Seamen from all New Zea-land-registered ships attended a special stop-work meeting at the Wellington Trades Hall this morning. It is believed that the Shipping and Seamen Amendment (No. 2) was one of the main topics for discussion. Calls were made at the Government Shipping Office at noon today for 50 seamen to man the Maori, the Aramoana and the Aranui, but the only seamen offering were the five niotormen who were sacked nearly a month ago from the Aranui. The seamen arrived at the office about 11.45 a.m. and when a call was made only the five dismissed men applied for jobs. They were turned down by the master of the Aramoana (Captain C. J. Murphy). Mr Skinner said in Auckland that developments in the ferry dispute which led to the passing of the amendment bill would not have happened if a more experienced Minister of Labour had been in control. SHORTER TOUR? Mr Skinner questioned the wisdom of both the Prime Minister (Sir Keith Holyoake) and the Minister of Labour (Mr Marshall) being out- of the country at the same time. He suggested that Sir Keith Holyoake might have shortened his Asian tour in view of the industrial Situation in New Zealand. “It is important for Mr Marshall to be in Britain, but I should have thought that the Prime Minister could have cut a couple of days off his tour,” Mr Skinner said.

He accused the guild of deliberately refusing to go to arbitration yesterday in a move designed specifically to push the amendment bill through in its original form, including the provision of prison sentences. “The officers did everything possible to get the bill through,” he said. “They fully supported it I am satisfied that they repudiated the

agreement solely for the purpose of getting the legislation through in its. original form.” BEST DEAL Settlement of the ferry dispute would mean that the bill would no longer be in force. While this was not at all what was asked for, it was the best deal that could be made with the Government. “The Government has been fairly co-operative with us on this,” he said. “As far as we were concerned we were hopeful that we could convince the Government to drop the measure altogether, but the officers finally created a situation where some measure was necessary.”