Rangatira passengers go to bed hungry

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33655, 3 October 1974, Page 14

Rangatira passengers go to bed hungry

Passengers forced to spend Tuesday night at Lyttelton aboard the inter-island steamer Rangatira were angry yesterday.

About 175 passengers were aboard when the j cooks and stewards refused to sail.

Their pay-day had been changed from Tuesday to Wednesday, and the men allege that they were not told in advance.

The Rangatira, to have sailed at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, left Lyttelton about 10 a.m. yesterday. The dispute left the stranded passengers without meals. Many ate ashore, but Lyttelton has few cafeterias, and many passengers, especially the children, went to bed feeling peckish. '1 have had a gutsful of this nonsense,” complained one passenger on a light stomach early yesterday. "When will they ever learn?” Another said that he felt frustrated by the crew’s action. OFFICER’S HELP Many other passengers expressed their annoyance, but some were philosophical, and a mother was grateful to the ship’s officer who provided

soap and arranged for the washing of her baby’s napkins. A spokesman for the Union Steam Ship Company said that those who had walked off had demanded that they be paid on Tuesday rather

than Wednesday. Theirs was the only roster which had complained about the change, and, the company spokesman said, the men’s action was against the wishes of their own union in Wellington. The company said that the men had been given two weeks notice of the change of pay day. However, it finally agreed to pay them on Tuesdays pending "further negotiations. UNION’S VIEW

Local union delegates maintained that they had only learned of the change on Tuesday, when they expected their pay. They added that they had done all they could to help the passengers, providing three men to act as night watchmen so that they could stay aboard. “We didn’t have any food either,” said the spokesman. “When the provedoring stops, that is it for everybody.” The company hoped to return the Rangatira to her normal routine with a special southbound daylight trip yesterday.