Strikes irk ferry head

Press, 26 July 1983, Page 8

Strikes irk ferry head

Maritime strikes have hit hard the new inter-island freight ferry, Spirit of Free Enterprise, but most of the disputes have not centred on the service the vessel offers.

Since the Spirit of Free Enterprise began her service on May 31 she had lost 14 of 42 planned sailings because of industrial action by maritime unions, said the head of Pacifica Shipping, Mr Brooke McKenzie, yesterday. The lost sailings had cost the company $500,000. “We have missed onethird of our sailings through no fault of our own. We are far from impressed; things can only get better.”

Bolling stoppages in protest against the wage-price freeze have been the cause of most of the missed sailings. Industrial action had come from cooks and stewards, watersiders, and seamen, Mr McKenzie said. Furthermore, when the service first started, a strike involving freight-for-warders in Canterbury affected her loadings. The Railways, Pacifica’s competition in transporting freight to Wellington, had not been as badly affected by the strikes, he asserted. In spite of the industrial problems, Mr McKenzie said, the service was here to

stay. Unions which acted illegally should be sued, he said. Pacifica had notified one union that action against it was being considered.

“Why should we carry the losses if people feel like a holiday?” Mr McKenzie said.

The Norwegian partners in Pacifica, Andresen, Finne, and Company, Ltd, were not happy about the industrial scene in New Zealand either.

They might complain to the Government, said Mr McKenzie. The company had been interested in becoming involved with heavy ; tonnages here, but now this looked doubtful. Mr McKenzie said that support for the service was building up all the time, and the company was very appreciative of this. The Spirit of Free EnterE> is due in Lyttelton y, having missed two sailings because of a stopwork by watersiders in Wellington. This resulted from a letter sent by the New Zealand Association of Waterfront Employers to the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union seeking watersiders to work at the Port of Bluff.