Talks on contract for Arahanga

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 2

Talks on contract for Arahanga

(N Z.P.A. Staff Corresponaent) LONDON, September 2. Talks will be held in London later this month between the New Zealand Railways and Mr R. C. Smith, liquidator of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, on a new contract to cover the completion of the third Cook Strait road-rail ferry Arahanga.

Because of the continuing “work-in” by trade unions at the Clyde yards, work on the S9m ferry is up to date, and she should be launched on time at the end of November.

What must be negotiated next month is the completion of the ferry after she is launched.

“Progress to date could not be better,” said an official of New Zealand House, who has inspected the ship in the last few days. "More than 80 per cent of the steel work is now in place, which is more than enough for launching. “Last week, the first of the main machinery, the big pumps, went in. This week, the main engines and gearboxes will be installed through a hole in the side. FINISHING TOUCHES “Generators should follow in the next two or three weeks, and then it will be just a matter of closing up the holes, putting the bow and stem in place, and finish-

ing the welding. Then we can launch her. “But what happens after that is still in doubt, because it will be covered by a new contract,” the official said. Work to date has proceeded under the old contract 1 existing when the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ consortium went into voluntary liquidation in June—but any work done after launching will be the subject of this month’s talks between N.Z.R. and Mr Smith. It is generally assumed that N.Z.R. will have to pay more money to have its ship delivered. The figure of £500,000 has been mentioned unofficially. As the British Government’s plan for modernising the Upper Clyde yards calls for the closing or sale of the Clydebank yard where the Arahanga is being built, Mr Smith might prefer to move the ferry after launching to another site for completion. But with the militant “work-in” in full swing, any such move could be politically dangerous. Mr Smith has told New Zealand officials that he is "more than confident” that the ferry can be finished at Cyldebank. Because the New Zealand Government has written to hundreds of sub-contractors guaranteeing payment for components supplied to the Arahanga construction site, the Clyde workers have had no shortage of parts or equipment.

“DELIGHTED” N.Z.R. consultants who inspected the work recently were delighted by the standard of workmanship—“firstclass in every way,” the officials said. Provided a satisfactory new contract could be worked out, and the unions continued their present admirable rate of work, the ship would be '-nmnieted on time by the - March next year, illy, the ferry was

the end of January and if this deadline had been met the Arahanga could have been in service by Easter. The new completion target of March-April was set earlier this year when the Minister of Railways (Mr Gordon) visited Glasgow and agreed

to a later delivery, but told Upper Clyde that its chances of getting an early-delivery bonus were now very small. What is keeping work going on the Arahanga is the remarkably smooth “work in,” in which management and unions are co-operating in a way that is surprising most of the people involved, including Mr Smith. New Zealand House officials who visited the yard found it to be “very close to normal”—only two workers’ delegates guarding the gate, and the rest of the men hard at work. NOT WORRIED Mr Smith does not appear in the least worried that 277 of the men working at the yard (out of 399 he has made redundant) are not in fact working for him but for the unions organising the “workin." “I am just concerned that work goes on and that any money paid out of U.C.S. funds is being paid only with my approval,” he said. Just how long this nirvana can continue is dubious, for the unions* funds—though swelled by donations from all over the world—are not endless.