Union in big business

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 23

Union in big business

Shipping News

Two new stevedoring companies have got off the ground in recent weeks which might change the face of New Zealand’s waterfront industry. For years people have been talking of workers having a financial interest in their respective industries — something long recognised as a big factor in industrial harmony in advanced European economies. It has finally become a reality in Lyttelton with the formation of the Lyttelton Stevedoring Company, in which the Waterside Workers’ Union has a onethird shareholding, and Independent 'Stevedores, Ltd. Independent Stevedores has been formed to offer a national service — co-ordi-nating the joint ventures, such as that in Lyttelton, which have sprung up in almost every big port in New Zealand. Auckland led the way with a joint stevedoring venture involving watersiders early this year — closely followed by Mount Mau-

nganui, Napier, Lyttelton, Timaru and Dunedin, with Bluff still to come. Independent Stevedores will have a small permanent staff, providing expert advice on stevedoring contracts, and co-ordinating tendering of contracts. The Lyttelton Stevedoring Company has already set up shop in a trucking firm’s storage shed, and is awaiting its first ship, the Russian freighter Nikolay Pogodin, due on Saturday. She will be closely followed by the Feng Yin, loading wool for China, due on Monday. At helm of the Lyttelton company will be Captain C. M. Anderson, formerly the Christchurch operations manager of the container shipping consortium Seabridge (N.Z.), Ltd.

Captain Anderson said yesterday he could see the company being “hectically busy” from now on, with four to five ships to be worked in January. For the last two weeks Captain Anderson says he has been “spending money as though it was going out of fashion” buying new gear. Under him he has six foremen stevedores, most of them former watersiders, and a small office staff. If things pan out as expected, the company may become the biggest stevedoring company at Lyttelton. Both the ships due in the next week would have been stevedored by the Union Steam Ship Company. But so far the Union company has not siphoned off any shipping from its other big competitor, Seaport Operations, Ltd. ARRIVALS Nil. DEPARTURES Wild Curley (11 p.mj, 7594, for sea (Scales). EXPECTED ARRIVALS Westmoreland, Wellington, today. Coastal Ranger, Wellington, December 16. Act 4. Auckland. December 16. Taikai Maru, Dunedin, December 17. Nikolay Pogodin, Auckland, December 17. Coastal Ranger, Wellington, December 18. Cielo di Saltirno, from sea, December 18. Feng Ying, Napier, December 19. PROJECTED DEPARTURES U.S.'S. Gray, for sea, December 15. Coastal Ranger, Wellington, December 16. Westmoreland. Dunedin, December 15. VESSELS IN PORT Ngahere, No. 3 West. [Union Hobart, linkspan. IU.S.S. Gray, No. 4 West. CONTAINERS Cargo from the following containers is available at the Lyttelton container freight station: Nedlloyd Hout man. voyage 7143: I.SO 02109. KNLU 2044333, LSE 03939, GCDU 2683254, LNTU 2378528. OCLU 0230579. GCDU 2684522, LFH 01408. NZCU'2IOI429, 2108378, INTU 2474727, OCLU 0207732. 2614228. Aotea, voyage 1808: JLAU