Industry facing shutdowns as fuel dwindles and dispute continues

Press, 25 November 1980, Page 1

Industry facing shutdowns as fuel dwindles and dispute continues

The power struggle between the oil industry and unions, which has already hit motorists and service stations, might affect some big industries by tomorrow.

The Canterbuiy Dairy Farmers, Ltd, milk treatment station in Blenheim Road has enough fuel oil to last until tomorrow, but if it does not get a delivery by then it may be in trouble, because it depends on fuel oil for processing much of Christchurch’s town, milk supply, and for its fleet of tankers which collect farm milk. Crown Crystal Glass at Hornby is also reported to be running low on fuel oil, on which it relies for production. It is believed that the company’s stocks are becoming critically low, and that unless there is a delivery in the next few days it might have to consider suspending more than 200 production staff for up to three weeks—the time it takes to get the furnaces restarted if they have to be closed. Among several other commercial users running out of oil was Rangiora Poultry Processors North Canterbury, Ltd, of Rangiora. , , t The company s plant manager, Mr B. Gilbert, said that if there were no deliveries of diesel oil by tomorrow, the plant would have to stop processing turkeys and lay off its staff of 50. The company is at the peak of its preChristmas rush. Christchurch tanker drivers held a stop-work meeting, yesterday morning and decided to return to work without restrictions. Oil storemen, who are members of the Labourers' .Union, voted to return to work, but imposed an overtime ban and also banned the discharge of oil from tanker ships at Lyttelton. The. Mobil tanker Sachem is anchored ’ 2.5 miles off Lyttelton Heads,

laden with five million litres of premium petrol and four million litres of Shell jet fuel. When Mobil storemen at Woolston and Shell storemen at Lyttelton refused to discharge the tanker, they were told that they were on strike. What happened after that is seen differently by the oil industry and the unions. According to an oil industry spokesman, Mr S. Marshall, the oil storemen at the main depot at Woolston told the company that they were going to close che product valves, which would cut off supplies of petrol and oil. .. , . Mr Marshall said last evening that the storemen did not usually close the valves. That work was usually done by tanker drivers. In spite of being told not to close the valves, the storemen did, he said. “All the company s tanker drivers load out from Woolston, so to get oil delivered the valves had to be opened. At that time (about 1-30 p.m.) 90 resellers and 20 commercial enterprises were dry, and we believed that it was necessary to get the drivers who had reported for work to load and deliver.” said Mr Marshall. The Canterbury Drivers' Union was told that unless storemen opened the valves management would have to, and the drivers, would be asked to deliver. The union requested time to get in touch with the Labourers’ Union.

Mr Marshall said that the Drivers* Union replied about 3 p.m. that the storemen would not open the valves, and that if management opened them the

drivers would refuse to load through them. The companies maintained that they had the right to. control any equipment. They opened the valves . themselves and asked the drivers to load.. Before closing time about 10 drivers- .had been requested to load and had refused,, said Mr Marshall. ■ . Those drivers were deemed to be on strike. Mr Marshall said. that if the storemen did not open the valves, today the-ma-nagement would again open them and ask drivers to load. The field officer for. the Canterbury branch of the Labourers’ Union, Mr G. R. Lomax, said that about 15 or 20 storemen were locked out by the Shell and Mobil companies. The members had returned to work after the stop-work meeting with action which would not affect the public. They decided to ban overtime and not to discharge oil from tanker ships. ■ ' ~ ■ Asked why the storemen had turned off the valves at the- Mobil Woolston depot,- Mr Lomax said that the union was “inte-ested to see how far they would go” after hearing that the companies would deem workers to be on strike if they took any restrictive action. Mr Lomax said that storemen usually opened the valves in the morning and closed them at night. The union regarded the control of the valves as one of its duties, although drivers closed them at night if the storemen had finished work for the day. He '•aid that deliveries could still be made using petrol from the Lyttelton installations.

Mr. Lomax said he be- ; lieved the oil .supply at f

Crown Crystal was critical, and the union had offered its co-operation in getting fuel delivered there. .

The- president of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union, Mr D. Collins,' said that, there were deliveries yesterday. Some tankers had loaded up on Friday and .delivered those, loads .yesterday; The drivers will meet again on Friday. The Canterbury Motor Trades Association spokes* man Mr’ 8,. B. Halliday, said that by late yesterday more than .40 service stations had run out of premium petrol, .and others were running out quickly, but there were still good stocks about. Some, service stations had been supplied on Friday, when the drivers returned. to work after a- week,. 1 oh'.-strike. Service ' stations" had been very busy-yesterday morning, he said. ' : i

Christchurch taxis may not last. to. Friday unless they get badly needed petrol supplies. L ■ .’; ~ Both Blue Star, and Gold Band have stopped selling to the public, and are conserving fuel for their drivers. , “We,. received some petrol ’ last Friday, and hoped to get some more before the tanker drivers had their meeting, but it did not eventuate,” said the manager of Blue Star, Mr K. Murphy.

“As soon as motorists heard on Sunday that the drivers might go out on strike again, they were all in topping up their tanks. What supplies we- did. have were soon eaten away,” he said.

The dispute is over a breakdown in award talks for both union groups, which are pressing for similar claims on wages and conditions, including a 35-hour week; and longer holidays. They are also opposed to the industry’s attempt to write in a clause on redundancy,. Talks in Wellington on Saturday on redundancy did not settle the issue. The four groups concerned — drivers, storemen, engineers. and clerical workers — plan to meet again on Friday. r Oil tanker drivers earn between $BBOO and $23,000 a year gross, but what the majority receive is disputed. Mr Collins, himself a tanker driver, said that

most drivers in Christchurch earned $9OOO to $lO,OOO gross a year. He had heard people talk about a figure of $20,000, but he was adamant that no Christchurch tanker drivers received that much. Mr Marshall said that the average earnings of oil company drivers, were between $13,000' and $15,000 in the last year, and in some instances they had earned up to $23,000. . .Oil tanker .drivers’ union delegates in Otago will meet tomorrow to decide on policy, which they will put to drivers at a stopwork meeting. .. ..

In Auckland. panic buving of petrol contin-, ued, and last .evening many service stations had run dry. More expect to today, reports the Press Association.

Many Auckland tanker drivers did not make normal deliveries yester-

day afternoon, after storemen placed picket lines on depots. At first the storemen placed their pickets across the gates to the depots, but after two companies called in the police they repositioned themselves at the side of the entrances. However, the drivers refused to take their trucks through the gates because of the picket. -They, were then deemed by the companies to. be on strike. The Wellington drivers met at 10 a.m. yesterday and decided not to return to work for the day. A union organiser said drivers would return to normal work this morning and would meet again tomorrow morning to review the situation.

Wellington storemen will meet this morning.

Last evening, 59 service stations and ■ 49 _ commercial users in Wellington had run out of supplies.