Freight ban puts $1M of produce in jeopardy

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 1

Freight ban puts $1M of produce in jeopardy

A freight-handling ban by railwaymen at Picton has caused a large backlog of freight at Blenheim, Spring Creek, and Picton, where more than $1 million worth of export produce is in danger of rotting.

Containers of meat, fish, and dairy products are stranded in railway yards in Marlborough, unable to be moved to urgently needed refrigeration points because of the ban. In a bid to save the produce workmen yesterday pumped carbon dioxide into the affected containers to try to keep it cool. Freight was last unloaded at Picton on Wednesday morning. Passenger traffic is unaffected. The ferries, the Aranui and the Arahura, have been travelling across Cook Strait for three days with the same full railway waggons in their holds. The chairman of the Blenheim branch of the National Union of Railwaymen, Mr Kevin Faithful, said the dispute concerned the Easter and Anzac Day roster. “The roster was unworkable because there were not enough staff. We would have had only a skeleton staff,” he said. Mr Faithful said that they received the roster on April 9 and rejected it on April

12. “I wrote to the corporation informing them of our decision. I did not get a reply until Thursday — after we went on strike,” he said. Railways Corporation executives will meet the railwaymen in Picton today in a bid to have the ban lifted. The corporation’s area traffic manager in Blenheim, Mr Lochie Smyth, said last evening that the stranded produce in his region was worth more than $1,250,000 — at a “very conservative estimate.” He said the stranded produce included a shipment of cheese worth more than $250,000. He was unsure how long the produce could be kept sufficiently cool by using carbon dioxide, but believed it was two to three days. The corporation’s district traffic manager in Christchurch, Mr R. J. Taylor, who will be in Picton for the meeting with railwaymen, said last evening that in the rest of his district the

Easter rosters were agreed by the normal procedures. “It is unfortunate that disputes of this nature can frustrate our efforts to run an efficient passenger and freight network. He said that he regretted the inconvenience to customers. Passenger trains have been travelling as far as Blenheim where patrons are off-loaded to continue their journey to Picton by bus or truck. Mr Faithful said that there had been a small delay while luggage was transferred from the train to the buses but apart from that the ferries had been travelling close to schedule. Last evening nearly 500 waggons were stranded on sidings between Kaikoura and Picton, and hundreds more were stuck in the North Island. The Railways has been holding back freight in Blenheim and Christchurch. The backlog would take several days to clear when work resumed, Mr Faithful said.