Redundant Rangatira men face unemployment

Press, 4 August 1976, Page 1

Redundant Rangatira men face unemployment

By

MURRAY SIMPSON

There will be no turkey on the table at Christmas for the 62 seamen in the Rangatira, who will be out of a job within six weeks. After months of uncertainty the Rangatira’s crews are facing a very real threat of unemployment once the ferry is withdrawn on September 15. Employment prospects within the industry are grim and there seems little likelihood of seamen’s getting jobs in other ships before the middle of December, in spite of assurances from the Minister of Transport (Mr McLachlan) that most of the redundant sea-

men will find places on other vessels. The seamen, almost all of whom live in the Christ-church-Lyttelton' area, feel employment opportunities will arise eventually, but many with families, homes, and mortgages cannot afford to wait three months or more for new postings, and could be forced out of the industry. While waiting for a ship seamen must report daily to the union office in Lyttelton. For this they are paid $lO a day, before tax, by the Ship Owners’ Federation.

This rules out the possibility of their registering as unemployed and being taken on labour-relief work.

According to a South Island national councillor of the Seamen’s Union (Mr A. Sagar) some seamen are already preparing to shift their families to Wellington, on the chance of employment on the Cook Strait ferries. But most will stick with the ship to the end, out of a sense of obligation. While the short-term prospects look grim, the union hopes the Government will look favourably on proposals to expand employment opportunities for seamen.

The union has asked the Government to consider using New Zealand seamen to man the bulk carriers handling wood chips. Mount Davy coal, West Coast ironsands, and nickel ore. New Zealanders could also justifiably man the container vessels which would be running to Japan later this year, said Mr Sagar.

Asked if the New Zealand wage structure would jeopardise the viability of these trades, Mr Sagar said New Zealand was steadily losing ground on wage rates compared with other countries. At a basic wage of $2.21 an hour, New Zealand seamen had fallen behind the Germans and Scandinavians, and the Japanese and British were now on a par, said Mr Sagar. New Zealand seamen were unlikely to affect the economics of these trades. For cooks and stewards the situation is almost as serious.

Job prospects before the introduction of the converted Aratika early in December are virtually nil, according to the assistant secretary of the Cooks and Stewards’ Union (Mr D. J. Abrahams). Even then the Aratika will take only 48 men plus 26 as relievers, out of the 112 union members employed in the Rangatira, said Mr Abrahams.

About half the Rangatira’s cooks and stewards live in Christchurch and Lyttelton but the Railways Department, which operates the Aratika, will hire only Wellington-based men. The Christchurch men wishing to work the Cook Strait run will have to fly

to Wellington for each week-long shift at their own expense. At the moment the Aratika seems to be the only prospect the cooks and stewards have of employment.

While the Union Steam Ship Company plans to increase its cargo-carrying capacity on the Tasman trade by up to 50 per cent with the introduction of its B.T. and Tor-class vessels, now being completed in Australian and Scandinavian shipyards, the manning of the company’s vessels will be increased only slightly.

The situation will be worsened by the expected withdrawal of Maritime Carriers from the Tasman trade within 18 months. Maritime Carriers is a subsidiary of a Rotterdambased company which charters four vessels to the Union Company on the Tasman run—the Union Australia, Union Trans Tasman, Union New Zealand, and Union South Pacific. For deck officers, the Rangatira’s withdrawal also represents a major upheaval in the industry, though their employment prospects are not q’uite so bleak.

The secretary of the Merchant Service Guild (Captain J. W. Dickenson) said yesterday that a new relieving system being introduced by the Railways on the Cook Strait service will create an additional 10 jobs for deck officers.

However, until the Union Company has its new Tasman vessels running it will have an over-supply of senior officers, said Captain Dickenson, and some may face temporary demotion.

Positions in the Hawea would not be open automatically to officers from the Rangatira, he said. The Shipping Corporation, which will run the Hawea, already has officers who will be looking to the Hawea as an opportunity for promotion. The withdrawal of Maritime Carriers was causing a little concern, he said, though its parent company in Rotterdam has offered New Zealand officers positions in its world-wide shipping network.