Union ban on Dalgety’s may cross Tasman

Press, 3 January 1979, Page 2

Union ban on Dalgety’s may cross Tasman

PA Wellington Trade unionists in New Zealand might join their Australian counterparts in banning work for Dalgety’s the stock and station agencv turn. I A ban has been imposed on Dalgety Australia by i New South Wales water- i siders since the company ; allegedly broke a union ban i on exports to Chile. I The secretary of the New i Zealand Waterfront Workers’ Federation. Mr E. ; Thompson, -aIJ yesterday I that New Zealand maritime unions would “most certainly” act upon any request for support from their Austra- , ban counterparts. No calls for support had i been received yet by his fed eration. If they came during < the next few days they could be channelled through ; the Federation of Labour, hell said. New South Wales water-; siders placed a ban last i Thursday against Dalgety I shipping and cargo handling i in retaliation for the loading and export over Christmas i week-end of 600 dairy breed-\ ing cattle from Eden, in New South Wales. Australian maritime I unions, like the F.O.L. in|i New Zealand, have had a policy of no trade with 1 Chile since a coup by the I present regime of General •> Augusto Pinochet overthrew the former president. Dr Sal-ii vador Allende, in 1973. The unions have maintained the policy in spite of then lifting last December of an | Australian Council of Trade I Unions ban against trade’; with Chile. i

According to reports from’ Sydney, Dalgety Australia tried to load the 600 cattle in to the Holstein Express at Newcastle last week, but were stopped by action by the Firemen and the Deckhands’ union. The state secretary of the: union, Mr D. Henderson,’ said that an agreement to allow the Holsttein Express to sail for New Zealand had been broken when Dalgety’s: telexed the captain after the ship had left Newcastle, telling him to change course for Eden. Mr Henderson said Dalgety’s had used its own port i facilities in Eden and em-I ployed fishermen and then 'local cattlemen to load the 1 ship. He said the ban would be! continued until January 4 when it would be reviewed after meetings with Dalgetty’s. An executive member of the F.O.L. Mr K. Douglas, said yesterday that although I the F.O.L.’s policy of ban-: ning trade with Chile — because of the suppression of trade unions there — was the same as that of the Australian maritime unions, a similar ban against Dalgety New Zealand was not auto;matic. “If the Australian unions want to extend pressure on Dalgety, they will make a specific request through the F.O.L. for our maritime unions to take up.” Mr Douglas said that if a call for support arrived dur-j ■ing the next few days there) 'would be no repercussions for Dalgety New Zealand for a “wee while” unless the request was urgent.