Watersiders return to work after stoppage

Press, 4 March 1980, Page 2

Watersiders return to work after stoppage

PA Wellington Watersiders returned to work at New Zealand ports yesterday after a three-day stoppage over award negotiations. The watersiders walked off the job on Friday in protest at what the general secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Federation (Mr E. Thompson) said was the refusal of employers to make a wage offer. Negotiations for a new national award began on February 26. Mr Thompson said yesterday that the stoppage was in protest at the lack of a wage offer. “We have made our protest and the stoppage is over,” said Mr Thompson. He said that the walkout had nothing to do with the|

watersiders’ present ban on the handling of fish exports. “That is an entirely separ- ! ate issue,” he said. In Auckland work re- : sumed yesterday on all ships ] except one. The Russian ! trawler Alexandrovsk is caught up in a national dis- i pute over whether watersiders or' fishermen, in- ! eluding port-process work- ■ ers, have the right to unload 1 fish from large vessels. i The ban on handling fish 1

cargoes may delay a consignment of eels expected to leave Tauranga this week. . Eleven tonnes of eels, consigned by Waikato companies, were to have been loaded on the Westmoreland and shipped to the United Kingdom. The Waterside Workers’ Federation in Wellington was approached yesterday to find out whether the eels could be loaded. No decision has been made.