Shell Oil row into full-scale dispute

Press, 3 May 1977, Page 6

Shell Oil row into full-scale dispute

PA Auckland ; A full strike by petrol! tanker drivers may erupt in! Auckland today. ; i Shell Oil Company drivers,;: accusing a depot supervisor : of “snooping” on their move-,] ments, refused to work from; late last week. i; The Northern Drivers’ ' Union asked Shell to employ i the supervisor elsewhere i when the row developed last : week. When the company refused, deliveries stopped. i The trouble grew when 1 drivers for Caltex, BP, and 1 Mobil were asked yesterday I to make deliveries to Shell 1 garages. The drivers refused, , and were all issued with notices that they were “in ] default.” i By last night, only the i afternoon shift drivers —

about 75 for the four com-' panies — were involved in, ! th. dispute. However, the problem may! .spread today when the tanker' drivers, oil pumpmen and; maintenance staff meet at 2 p.m. The Shell company said yesterday that the supervisor, was actually observing: drivers’ movements for evid-| ence of a petrol stealing racket. Mr D. J. Patten, executive officer of the Oil Industrial Union of Employers, said in Wellington yesterday that Shell Oil had no proof that thefts had occurred at the Auckland depot. “All companies do have a problem, with petrol the price it is, with employees getting away with fuel,” hi said. Mr Patten said the mem

I were not suspended: “in default” meant that work was I not available to them until they were prepared to accept '“lawful instructions” from ; their employers. The only hope of a quick settlement is a dispute committee hearing, tentatively set down to be heard before the Industrial Conciliator (Mr F. M. Gerbic) tomorrow. The secretary of the Northern Drivers Union (Mr G. H. Andersen) said last evening that the Shell company had tried to defeat the strike by asking other tanker drivers to deliver to Shell stations. “This is not an industry dispute. If it suits the companies, they are individual employers; if it doesn’t, then they are employers in one whole industry.”