Many seek work on the waterfront

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 12

Many seek work on the waterfront

(By

KEN COATES)

Yearly earnings of more than $5OOO are well within the reach of waterside workers, and getting a job on the wharf these days is rather like joining an exclusive club. There are application forms to be filled in, backgrounds investigated, a personal interview and in some cases, being the son of an “old boy” is something to be considered.

There is a keen demand for jobs from men who want to become waterside workers—and this is one industry which does not need to advertise its job vacancies. When the word gets around that applications are being accepted, queues usually result at the Port Employers’ Association’s Lyttelton office.

One reason for the interest, besides the pay and conditions, has been the need to bring the Lyttelton workforce up to full strength. This is represented by a bureau register which at present stands at 665 employees. When the new waterfront agreement came into force at the end of August last year, a number of older waterside workers took advantage of the retiring conditions and decided to call it a day. The result has been that more than 80 new workers have been taken on since then. How does a man become a waterside worker? Many attracted According to the relevant regulations, the bureau register for each port shall consist of “men of good character and sober habits who are physically fit for all classes of wharf work.”

These criteria attract men from all walks of life to fill in the required form that questions their marital status, trade if any, previous employment and whether they have ever worked on the waterfront before.

As in any other industry, it is the employer who has the say as to who is actually hired, but in this case the union is represented on a screening committee which interviews potential workers. And the union is quite open about the fact that it puts forward names which perhaps include the sons of waterfront workers. As secretary Mr Mel Fos-

ter says, if a waterside worker wants to recommend his son, and the young man is willing and competent to work in the industry, why not? Exactly the same sort of thing, he says, happens in other occupations in which a father wants his son to follow in his footsteps. The employer, who is responsible for the costly operation of shipping in and out of ports, is naturally looking for men with stable employment records and who are suitable for the work. A seaman who has decided on a shore life, but who knows his way around ships and their loading gear, can make a good waterside worker. And of course a man with a bad criminal record does not stand a chance. Owe quite stringent requirement necessary before any man is accepted as a port employee, is the passing of a medical examination to ensure he is physically fit for the work. Training schemes Once a man is accepted and his name entered on the register, he can then be signed up as a union member. But not all who see greener fields at Lyttelton can stick at it Some cannot climb heights, others will not venture into ships’ holds or do other work required of them. Because so many new waterfront workers have been taken on at Lyttelton to replace men who have retired, training schemes have been arranged and four instructors from Auckland

have demonstrated techniques. As well as the permanent register of workers at Lyttelton, there is also a pool of non-union labour which is drawn on. This is fixed by agreement at 50 men. and union and employers nave also agreed there should not be any more than 35 men on the subsidiary register who can be called on to work on any one day. This is one outcome of bargaining leading up to agreement on the working of extended hours at Lyttelton. What it has meant is that the old “sea-gull” days when you or I, if we were fit, able and early enough to be at the port at the right time to get a job as a temporary wharfie, are virtually over. But just how satisfactory this limiting of non-union labour is in times of heavy shipping is another question. • For example, one day last week, the port was short of more than 100 men and one or two ships lay expensively idle because there were insufficient workers. Non-union men If a casual labourer had asked for a .job, he would have been refused employment because of the limit on the number of non-union men who could be employed.

And to make matters more difficult, because the limit for a day is set at 35, this further restricts the number of non-union men actually available for work at relatively short notice. One possibility would be to increase the number on the permanent register, and there are negotiations under way in this direction at present But obviously there has to be some reasonable limit

While a shortage of waterside labour is hampering work at major New Zealand ports and contributing to costly shipping delays, the

union maintains that the shipowners are partly at fault here because of the haphazard way shipping is directed to various ports. It is argued that a centralised system, perhaps computer - controlled, which would spread the waterfront work evenly over all ports and so speed-up turn-round of shipping, would help to iron out labour problems. Charges resented Waterside workers are sensitive about the periodic glare of publicity on their wages and conditions. And allegations which they feel brands them all as pilferers incense them. The union makes the point that all over the world, maritime unions are traditionally in the forefront of improved conditions, and their gains are later enjoyed by other workers. Waterfront workers saywhy pick on us? How about the investor, they ask, who might speculate and make a profit, say, in land of thousands of dollars, and no-one utters a word publicly. This is the sort of reaction when wage levels on the waterfront are questioned, And as for pilfering, the union says any charge which concentrates just on waterfront workers is grossly unfair. It points out that goods are open to pilfering from the time they leave the manufacturer to the time they reach the customer. And it says it will never in any circumstances take up the case industrially of a waterside worker caught stealing cargo. Earnings The Minister of Labour (Mr Marshall) said in Parliament recently that watersiders can eam an average of $5200 in the first 12month period, compared with an average of $3823 in 1969. According to one waterside worker, the operative word is “could.” He says everything would need to "go all your way” during a year on the Lyttelton waterfront. But other sources put the average as stated by the Minister as easily attainable at major ports, while at Tauranga where a great deal of timber for export is handled, the average earnings of watersiders is estimated at being nearer $BOOO. The basic assured wage is $53.60 a week for an eighthour day, although nine hours are worked—the additional hour at double rates. In addition there are separate rates for Saturday work which sometimes involves Saturday afternoon as well as Saturday morning work, bonus payments and special rates for dirty, dangerous and difficult cargo—stipulated in a long list. Key industry The actual cargo money paid out for special types of cargo is often subject to negotiation, before individual ships are dealt with. Waterfront workers, through their industrial action in what is a key industry, are seldom out of the news. They can expect public comment about the money they get for the work they do. What they resent is unfair comment, and this is understandable.

Watersiders, along with freezing workers, have sometimes been termed the “kings" of New Zealand’s labour force.

Be that as it may the fact is that when next the screening committee meets at the Port Employers' Association’s Lyttelton office with its union observers to interview the next batch of applicants for jobs on the wharves, there will be keen interest among a wide range of workers in who gets taken on and who does not.