N.Z. crews ‘almost unemployable’

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 8

N.Z. crews ‘almost unemployable’

PA Auckland The Shipping Corporation should get out of international trades because New Zealand crews were almost unemployable, said the chairman of the Owens Group, Mr R. A. Owens, yesterday. Speaking at the Harbours’ Association conference yesterday, Mr Owens challenged the corporation’s chairman, Mr H. L. Julian, to say whether the corporation was “going for free enterprise or would continue to follow the tattered flag of the British merchant marine.”

Mr Julian, in reply, said that the Owens Group’s own New Zealand crew venture, the ship Aotearoa, which was used for Japanese trade, had failed and that high manning was not necessarily the fault of the unions but the employers who negotiated such deals. Mr Owens made his.comment at the end of a panel debate on the future of shipping. Others taking part were Mr Julian; the chairman of the Union Steam Ship Company, Sir Peter Abeles; and the chairman of the Belgian A.B.C. Containerline, Mr T. E. V. Rosenfeld. Mr Owens said he noted that “two gentlemen with foreign accents” spoke of the value of free enterprise and “one gentleman with a New Zealand accent” (Mr Julian) of the value of protectionism within the conference system. He said that for 18 years the British conference lines had made money at New Zealand’s expense. Mr Julian said New Zea-

land had been well served by the conference in recent years.

“They have been prepared to lay up ships at much expense to themselves. If it were not for the conference strength, more private enterprise shipping would have crept away.” The corporation, he said, did not ask for favours or particular privileges in trades. It was only in conferences when they served the corporation’s interests.

He told Mr Owens that the Owens Group had had a captive trade to Japan with the Aotearoa and a New Zealand crew. The group had not battled hard to reduce its manning levels, and the venture had failed. Mr Owens said that the Aotearoa crew was smaller than that employed by the corporation in its new ship New Zealand Trader.

The Aotearoa was a much bigger ship and he (Mr Owens) was able to fix the manning easily with the then-president of the Sea-

men’s Union, Mr William Martin, “Over a beer in a Wellington pub.” Mr Owens said it took the corporation months to negotiate the New Zealand Trader manning agreement and the ship was held up at Taiwan during part of the deliberations. The amount of time at home was a problem with New Zealand maritime unions.

“The Railways has four vessels with 17 masters and a similar number of crew.

“They (New Zealand seamen) are virtually unemployable on the world market. As long as you protect their time at home they cannot compete, and I do not think Mr Julian should compete on the world scene.”

Mr Owens said consumers were looking for efficiency. He said 80 per cent of the New Zealand seamen happened to be from Britain and he did not know why Mr Julian bothered to look after them.