Port dispute may be settled soon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33434, 16 January 1974, Page 2

Port dispute may be settled soon

(New Zealand Press Association

WELLINGTON. January 15.

The Minister of Transport (Sir Basil Arthur) was confident that he could obtain agreement with the unions to keep the port of Timaru open, the Minister of Labour (Mr Watt) said todav.

Mr Watt told the N.Z.P.A. that he had (been in touch with Sir (’Basil Arthur today and iSir Basil would he re- | porting to him again tomorrow.

i “(Sir Basil is confident that he fan get agreement with the people in the port to continue working,” Mr Watt said. The situation did not appear as serious as a report had suggested. The Canterbury Storemen and Packers’ Union has threatened to impose a black ban on the port of Timaru because watersiders there will not handle export meat packed into containers at the South Canterbury Co-opera-tive Cool Stores. Workers at the cool stores are members of the Storemen and Packers’ Union. The ban was not connected with a recent decision by Mr Watt to allow Wellington watersiders to do Storemen and Packers’ Union work outside the wharf area, the president of the Timaru Watersiders’ Union (Mr L. R. Jenkin) said today. Mr Jenkin said the cool stores involved in the dispute were in the harbour area, and therefore should be the property of the watersiders. The general secretary of the Storemen and Packers’ Union (Mr P. J. Mansor) appeared to be using Timaru as a test case for other ports jin New Zealand with onwharf cool stores, Mr Jenkin jsaid. TALKS UNLIKELY Mr Jenkin said informal discussions between the

■watersiders, the storemen and packers, and Sir Basil Arthur were to have been held tomorrow. The talks could have settled the Timaru dispute, but Mr Jenkin now doubted whether they would take place, as a result of the ban. Sir Basil Arthur deplored the ban. “I have always believed that demarcation disputes between industrial organisations should be settled through discussion or arbitration,” he said. “They should be discussed in the proper way. Parties should not resort to direct action.” At a local level there had been a strong desire to avoid industrial trouble, he said. “I have been fully aware of the situation since threats were first made,” Sir Basil Arthur said. “I have been working with the parties involved.” He said his first concern was to maintain work on the Timaru waterfront, a concern also felt by the Minister of Labour (Mr Watt). The secretary of the Fed-

eration of Labour (Mr W. J. Knox) told the N.Z.P.A. in an interview in Wellington that the F.O.L. had not been officially advised of the dispute.

He doubted whether the F.O.L. would be brought into the dispute.

The Watersiders’ Union had accepted Mr Watt’s action in designating off-wharf work in Wellington to watersiders, Mr Knox said.

The watersiders were affiliated to the F.0.L., but the Storemen and Packers’ Union is not.

Mr Mansor will be in Christchurch and Timaru on Thursday to discuss implementation of the ban with the Canterbury branch of the Storemen and Packers’ Union. A Timaru member of the union said he did not think a meeting could be held on the dispute until the union’s court action against the Minister of Labour was heard. “A WHISPER” The Timaru Harbour Board was treating the ban as “a very serious situation,” the general manager of the board, (Mr B. E. Strathearn) said this morning. “When we got the whisper last week about a black ban we took the matter up with the Minister of Labour.

“Apparently the Minister’s reply was sent last Friday to the board, but it has not been received.

“I expected the letter on Monday, and as a result I telephoned Wellington this morning, asking the Minister to give the matter urgent attention.” Mr Strathearn said he did not know when the ban would be applied.

“All I know is what I read in today’s newspaper, that the general secretary of the Storemen and Packers’ Union is coming to Timaru to discuss the ban with local union officials. “I cannot gauge the effects of the threatened ban on the port of Timaru yet. It would depend on how wide and how far it will extend,” he said.