No increase for shipwrights

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 2

No increase for shipwrights

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 5. New Zealand port employers told executive members of the Shipwrights’ Union at a meeting of the two parties today that they would not pay an increase in wages.

The chairman of the Port Employers’ Federation (Mr V. P. Blakely) later said that the union executive, led by the secretary (Mr T. Hill), would discuss the matter at a special meeting of members on Monday. Shipwrights have ceased work at seven New Zealand ports, having left their jobs a week ago after the employer’s refusal to add an extra

! 4c an hour to their hourly rate of $1.63. The ports affected are ' Auckland, Wellington, Napier, : New Plymouth, Lyttelton, Ti- | maru and Bluff. Mr Blakely said this after- ’ noon: “We reiterated the fact that the port employers • would not agree to the ini crease in wages, and also renewed our offer to review the wage rates in August.” I The meeting, which lasted three-quarters of an hour, had i been quiet, he said. Although shipwrights have stopped work at Lyttelton, no cargo work was hampered at the port yesterday, says the Lyttelton reporter of "The Press.” Shipwright’s held another meeting at Lyttelton yesterday morning, but the secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the Shipwright’s Union (Mr P. O’Brien) had no comment i to make on it. Advice regarding the dispute was awaited from the national headquarters of the ■ union, Mr O’Brien said.