Garage men threaten, to drive tankers themselves

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 1

Garage men threaten, to drive tankers themselves

While the oil tanker Sachem lies anchored off Lyttelton laden with petrol, Christchurch service stations have almost run out and the few that still have petrol are under siege by motorists.

About 100 Christchurch service-station owners met for two hours yesterday and decided that if petrol deliveries do not resume by 8 a.m. tomorrow they will go to the fuel-storage depot in Chapmans Road. Woolston, at 10 a.m. to turn on the installation valves and drive the tankers themselves to deliver petrol. The chairman of the motor-spirits section of the Canterbury Motor

1 rade Association Mr B. B. Halliday, said that the owners were “very uptight.” Some had not had petrol delivered since last week while others had had only token deliveries last Friday. The owners will also send a delegation to the-> Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) to ask him to use legislation or any other means at his disposal to get petrol flowing again. Mr Halliday said that no action had been taken

by the Government in spite of telegrams sent on November 17 seeking intervention. Service-station proprietors would also telephone their members of Parliament and send telegrams to them.

By vesterday afternoon only 14 Christchurch service stations still had petrol. They were busy handling queues of motorists and some of them were restricting petrol to regular customers. Most of Christchurch’s

taxis will be off the road by tomorrow. The Blue Star Taxis service station ran out of fuel last evening and the Dallington Service Station, which supplies Gold Band Taxis, will probably be out of petrol by tomorrow. Crown Crystal Glass and Canterbury Dairy Farmers, two companies dependent on fuel oil for processing and whose supplies had been running dangerously low, are now expected to receive fuel

under arrangements made between the oil companies and the unions for deliveries to high-priority industries.

However milk vendors are worried about having enough petrol to deliver milk. The Milk Vendors’ Association’s executive met yesterday and decided to send telegrams to Mr Muldoon, the Under-Se-cretary of Agriculture (Mr Talbot), and the office of the Minister of Labour

(Mr Bolger) seeking assistance. The association’s chairman, Mr I. M. Murray, said that while some vendors had enough petrol to last until the end of the week others were already having to go- across town for petrol and might be out of petrol by this evening. Some vendors had had their trucks converted to take compressed natural gas as well as petrol but

they could not get C.N.G. at present. Mr Murray appealed to members of the public to approach their milkmen if they had any spare petrol which they could offer. Some vendors had resorted to storing petrol illegally to ensure supplies. Christchurch Transport Board buses have enough fuel to last until the end of the week. Most carriers probably have about 10 days supply of fuel, according

to the president of the Canterbury Road Transport Association, Mr P. Boyd. The Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association yesterday conducted a survey of 25 companies employing about 20 per cent of Canterbury’s manufacturing work-force. The association’s director, Mr I. D. Howell, said that the companies had enough fuel oil to last until Monday but that if they had no deliveries by then the .jobs of more

than 2000 workers would be in jeopardy. If the trend revealed in the survey was extrapolated to over-all Canterbury manufacturing 11.000 workers’ jobs would be in jeopardy. The industries which would run out of fuel oil by Monday were in printing, textiles, engineering. and food processing.

The main concern at present was that workers were having difficulty getting petrol for their cars to get to work.

About 125 workers on the Upper Waitaki power project have been sent home on full pay because the Ministry of Works and Development has not been able to obtain sufficient diesel for the heavy earthmoving machinery there. The project engineer, Mr Max Smith, said that petrol supplies were also running low. Christchurch oil storemen suspended on Monday met vesterday morning and decided to approach their employers offering to work an eight-hour day but reaffirmed their ban on discharging tanker ships.

The secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Labourers’ Union, Mr R. A. Lowe, said that the aim was tb relieve the situation for motorists and factories but the- companies had turned down the offer. The oil storemen had also told their employers that they were prepared to work the fuel valves to allow emergency deliveries but again the management had refused. The union had told the Motor Trades Association of the position.

Mr Lowe said that the union’ was studying 'the possibility of claiming back pay for the time the men were suspended because they had been locked out. The companies had not asked the storemen physically to discharge the ships. Two Timaru oil storemen had been suspended when they had said that they would' uphold the union’s decision not to unload tanker ships but the tanker ship had not even called at the port when the storemen had been sent home. Two other oil storemen at Timaru working for another oil company had gone on strike in sympathy with the two suspended. The executive officer of

the Oil Industry Union of Employers, Mr 'S. Marshall, said that deliveries of fuel oil to high-priorty industries were being made from a Lyttelton depot where oil storemen and tanker drivers were still working.

He denied that workers had been locked out. The men were on strike and the companies would contest any claim for arrears of wages. The employers could not allow workers to dictate which work they would or would not do.

More tanker drivers were deemed to be on strike yesterday when they refused to load petrol from valves opened by the management. Mr Marshall said he was not aware of there being any deliveries of premium petrol in Christchurch yesterday. No serious problems were faced by the Post Office, the Railways, Midland Coachlinesi or rentalcar firms but the situation could change by the endof the week. Petrol deliveries will resume in Auckland today but the rate at which many fuel-starved service stations can be replenished must be. slowed, reports the Press Association. Tanker drivers will return to work this morning but plan to follow rigidly regulations that govern the handling of dangerous goods.

A Drivers’ Union . offk cial, xMr T.. Downey, said,'‘.There are certain things that have ’been done over the years that should not have been. From today we will not be breaking the law any more.” . Mr Downey said that one of the breaches had been of a regulation that said that drivers should not discharge petrc I at a service station when a vehicle was being filled within eight metres. Oil storemen will also go back today and Auckland should have at least two days of fuel deliveries.

On Friday, all four unions involved in the oilindustry dispute, those covering drivers, storemen, clerical workers, and engineers, will meet. Further action could arise from that. By last evening, up to three-quarters of all service stations in Auckland had run out of petrol. An Australian Air Force Orion will fly into Wellington today from Antarctica because Christchurch Airport is critically short of aviation fuel. The United States Navy Antarctic-Sup-port Force tried unsuccessfully to find other sources of fuel for the plane. The flight is expected to be the first of several Antarctic flights into Wellington.