No work on big tanker

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 2

No work on big tanker

PA Whangarei The 133,256-tonne tanker Mobil Brilliant, the largest ship to visit New Zealand, was strike-bound at Marsden Point yesterday when the 10 jetty operators who control the flow of crude oil, stopped work. They have stopped work until further notice in protest against the failure of award talks. The ship has only 6000 tonnes left in its tanks of its cargo of 99.000 tonnes I of crude oil and naphtha. ■ It was scheduled to sail at noon yesterday. ' The Mobil Brilliant is the only ship at Marsden Point affected by the stop- ‘ page, which is not ex- ' peeled to affect other work at the refinery in the meantime. The striking men are members of the Storemen and Packers Union, employed by a private firm under contract to the New Zealand Refining Company, They stopped discharging work on the direction of the Auckland branch of the union, although they are still working safety patrols and doing other duties, on a 24-hour basis. A meeting of union officials was held in Auckland yesterday and officials will meet the jetty opera- • tors at Marsden Point to- ’ day. The big tanker arrived at Marsden Point on Satur- : day under a shroud of secrecy. The blanket of j news coverage was im- • posed by Mobil Oil, New Zealand, Ltd, the new • owners of the vessel. I Reporters and photoI graphers were ordered away from the ship, which i has a Chinese captain and a Korean crew. The ship was bought from a Japanese concern : only a day before it left i the Persian Gulf for its journey to New Zealand. Yesterday, Mobil's pub- ; licity affairs manager (Mr , P. Wilkinson) said his ' company did not want publicity, because it had not had the chance to bring , the tanker up to normal ! Mobil standards.