Ship dispute unresolved

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 1

Ship dispute unresolved

Work has still not begun at Lyttelton on the coastal container ship Union Nelson, in spite of a' decision of the Waterfront Industry Tribunal which should have resolved a 12-day dispute which has left the vessel idle on her maiden voyage to the port. The tribunal decided yesterday that Lyttelton Harbour Board equipment, manned by the board's employees, should be used to unload the vesel.

Watersiders. who are members of the Waterfront Union, have refused to help unload the vessel because of the ruling. They did not start work on the vessel yesterday and consequently were paid off by the ship’s stevedores, Union Maritime Services.

Mr W. Collins, the acting secretary of the union, said that no work would be done on the ship until Monday, after the watersiders had held their regular stop-work meeting. Union members

would decide on future action at that meeting. The tribunal’s decision, which was given by the tribunal’s chairman, Judge Castle, said that the board’s employees should run the board’s equipment from the ship to the gates of the Union Company’s terminal and that Union Company equipment should be used inside the terminal. Union Maritime Services had earlier sought to have the vessel unloaded using her own equipment run by the watersiders. Members of the Harbour Board Employees’ Union picketed the ship until the tribunal’s decision was announced yesterday morning. The dispute began between the Harbour Board and the Union Company over which of them should supply equipment to unload the Union Nelson. It. developed into a demarcation dispute between the watersiders and the board's employees.