Tanker talks today — if both sides agree to conditions

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 1

Tanker talks today — if both sides agree to conditions

Industrial reporter

Uncertainty surrounds petrol supplies in Canterbury — depending on a meeting of BP tanker drivers today to decide whether to continue their five-day old strike.

The BP drivers, with tanker drivers from other oil companies who were suspended for failing to deliver petrol to BP stations on Thursday and Friday, will consider a recommendation from officials of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union that they return to work, subject to certain conditions being met by the employers. The conditions are that talks resume, and that the suspended workers—the drivers from the other companies—be paid for the time they have been suspended.

The union’s secretary (Mr P. R. Liggett) said that the men were illegally suspended. because they had been prepared to carry out normal work.

Demand for petrol slackened slightly yesterday after two days of brisk business for service stations. Some stations had run out by Saturday, others had begun to ration, but most of those open yesterday had sufficient stock for today and, in the case of the larger ones, for several more days if demand remained stable.

The rush for petrol began after oil companies other than BP asked their drivers to deliver petrol to BP stations. The drivers refused, and were suspended. The Canterbury branch

of the Motor Trades Association would hold an emergency meeting today if the drivers did not return to work, said its president (Mr R. M. James) yesterday. The strike is over the positioning of electrical cut-off switches in tilt-cab tankers.

The employers yesterday sent a telegram to the Canterbury Drivers’ Union, informing it that oilindustry representatives would be in Christchurch today “and providing that all drivers return to work after their meeting will be available to meet union representatives to discuss the positioning of isolating switches.” The cut-off switch issue is a bone of contention with all oil-company drivers. BP drivers are at the centre of the present dispute only because that company has taken a definite stand on the matter.

The delivery of oil fuel is an essential industry under the Industrial Relations Act, and unless 14 days notice is given a strike is illegal.

Mr Liggett said yesterday that the employers had been given notice three months ago.

Letters about the switch issue had been sent to Caltex, Shell, Atlantic, Mobil, and BP in July, but only BP had replied, and discussions with BP had "not been fruitful.”

Mr Liggett said the situation existed throughout New Zealand, but only in Canterbury had it become an issue.

The Dangerous Goods Regulations stipulate that cut-off switches should be placed inside the tanker cab, but in 1973 a dispensation was given allowing them to be shifted outside. The dispensation was granted because of the advent of the tilt-cab vehicle, and the long runs of wiring needed for switches.

Mr Liggett said that a recent survey of oil companies in Christchurch and Timaru showed that about 20 electrical faults in tanke re! ■'■r’urred in the last three years. About 18 of these faults had occurred while the tanker was loaded and in motion.

The Chief Inspector of Explosives (Mr H. Richards) had said that switches were permitted on the outside of cabs for safety reasons, but neither he nor anyone else could explain away the occurrence of electrical faults while a tanker was in motion, as revealed in the survey, said Mr Liggett. “The chief inspector has said that because of the heavy wiring for the switch going through the front of the vehicle, this wiring might be damaged in a head-on collision.

“The present system of

wiring tilt-cab vehicles entails the heavy maincircuit wiring going through the hinge point of the vehicle, and if it is involved in a head-on collision and the wiring is damaged, a short-circuit will occur,” said Mr Liggett.

He said that electrical faults were not reported to the Chief Inspector of Explosives. They were repaired by the oil companies.

It was reassuring for a driver to be able to have easy access to the cut-off switch in the event of an electrical malfunction. He did not have easy access if the switch was outside the cab.

Mr Liggett himself has had 12 years experience as an oil-tanker driver, and says that at least twice he had been glad the switch was inside his cab.

“One time I was coming over Evans Pass bringing 4000 gallons of jet fuel when the wiper wiring went,” he said. “Because the cut-off switch was inside the cab, I was able to turn it off immediately”—and so stop the short-circuit.

“The tanker weighed about 34 tonnes fully laden, and by the time I had pulled on the hand-brake and got out to switch off — under the new system — I dare say the whole cab would have been alight,” Mr Liggett said.