Guild cuts gas supply

Press, 24 November 1979, Page 2

Guild cuts gas supply

PA New PlymouthMerchant Service Guild members have extended •their direct. action in a bid |to halt diving work at the I Maui A platform off the -Taranaki coast. The secretary of the Guild (Captain J. iW. Dickinson) said from iWellington that members on I the supply vessels Austral Tide and Northern Tide would' run only enough gas to decompress divers. They would refuse to handle sufficient gas to allow diving to continue. “We know diving is a high-risk occupation and we will do nothing to jeopardise the lives of For this reason we will take enough igas out .for decompression purposes.” he said. The move against divers is the latest by the guild in a dispute over the manning of the new support ship Constructor, which is scheduled to take over from the Pacific Installer early next year. The new. ship is run by the Swedish line Stena Ab and under Swedish law must, carry that country’s flag and be manned by 'Swedish personnel. The guild says it I will settle for nothing less (than total New Zealand manning and has already told its members not to run the anchors on the Pacific Installer and not. to handle maintenance or construction equipment for the platform.