The container fiasco

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32700, 1 September 1971, Page 16

The container fiasco

The container-handling fiasco, which began in Wellington and has not yet finished in Auckland, must be recorded as one of the more disheartening episodes on the New Zealand waterfront Many angry words have been spoken and written about the delays; and some of the complaints have been misdirected. Some, indeed, may have had the effect of hardening the resistance of the unions to appeals to get down to work in the national interest It can hardly be imagined, for instance, that the expressed willingness of one group of farmers to take over the loading job did anything to persuade the waterfront workers to become more conciliatory. Talk of special legislation to enforce the working of containers was equally unwise; this was no way to promote industrial harmony. Nor can the waterfront employers take any satisfaction from their failure to pursue urgent negotiations on the handling of containers when the time was ripe—weeks before the container ships came into port The employers had no good reason to assume that the watersiders in Wellington and Auckland would be prepared to accept, at short notice, a temporary agreement. In fact an interim agreement would have been a sound idea, had it been carefully negotiated in advance. In spite of all this the waterfront unions always had it in their power to work, at no apparent disadvantage in the meantime, and certainly at no lasting disadvantage to themselves. Both the ACT 3 and the Columbus New Zealand would have sailed with all their cargoes. Now that the introduction of container shipping to New Zealand ports is beginning on only a modest scale the waterfront workers have no need to fear for the security of their jobs. In fact, the general picture of the waterfront is one of labour shortages rather than of threatened redundancy. For some time the shortage of labour has been the main cause of valuable working time being lost by ships in New Zealand ports. Labour shortages and industrial disputes add to the cost of all kinds of shipping, and the planned economies of container shipping are nullified by long stays in port Another serious result of the recent hold-ups at Wellington and Auckland is that $1.6 million worth of meat destined for the United States will be left in containers at Auckland. Because of the current maritime strike on the West Coast of the United States, it had become urgent to ship this meat to the East Coast—where another strike is threatened in a month. In addition, the American “quota year” ends on December 31, and it is possible that no other container ship will call at Auckland in time to deliver this cargo before the end of the year. Not only would business be lost this year, failure to fill the quota would imperil New Zealand’s chances of maintaining or enlarging its quota next year. The full cost of the disastrous first visit of the ACT 3 to New Zealand has yet to be counted. '• z <