Union wins contract

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 4

Union wins contract

Lyttelton watersiders hate; won their first stevedoring i contract. i Watersiders two months i ago formed a wholly-union- I (Owned stevedoring firm, the | Express Stevedoring Company. to service ships at Lyt- I itelton. ( The Secretarv the Lyttelton Waterside Workers’ i . Union (Mr M. E. Foster) has > announced that the company i successfully tendered for a I contract for the loading of; 50no tonnes of bulk coke'' breeze. 11

[ The contract was awarded by the Christchurch Gas Company, which will ship the coke breeze to Japan in the bulk carrier Timber Pioneer late next week. The Harbour Board’s bulk loading facility at Cashin Quay will be used. A second contract for a shipment of ordinary coke was being negotiated with the Gas Company, said Mr Foster. No special equipment would be required for the bulk coke shipments, said Mr

Foster, but the company has access to plant and machinery if needed for further contracts. Other Lyttelton stevedoring companies are fairly quiet on the matter. The chairman of the Lyttelton Port Employers’ Association (Mr A. J. Smith) said yesterday that he could makt no real comment ■ hough his association would |wa f 1 the company’s development with interest. Private companies had no tears that the watersiders ! might have an unfair advantage in tl, e use of port labour. The watersiders would be bound by exactly the same rules as anv other company. Mr Smith said. Mr Foster confirmed h ; s. saying he did not expect watersiders to work harder for their own firm than for anv other. Final details of how profits would be distributed had vet to be worked out. he said. The company must be nlaced on a sound commercial footing before it oould nav anv dividends, and rhpro litOo likelihood of dividends within a year. Though the contract was f or only one shipment the , 'omnanv would look for more ’ong-tenn contracts. Mr Foster said. A similar venture bv Tauranga watersiders last year ended under pressure from other stevedoring companies after the union won a single contract from Wrightson NMA to ship cattle to Japan. Lyttelton watersiders did not expect a repetition of this, said Mr Foster.