Rail ban may cut Chch yard work

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 1

Rail ban may cut Chch yard work

PA Wellington Railway workers in Wellington and Christchurch may be sent home today because a freight ban at Picton has left them with little work. The ban has stranded hundreds of railway waggons and stopped the movement of freight on Cook Strait rail ferries.

Export produce valued at more than ?1 million is trapped without proper refrigeration in railway yards. The Railways Corporation last evening refused to withdraw the controversial work roster that prompted railwaymen at Picton to ban freight movements. Earlier, the railwaymen, unhappy with rosters for the Easter and Anzac Day period, decided not to lift the ban.

Railways Corporation executives met in Wellington last evening to consider how they would get freight moving again.

The corporation’s chief traffic manager, Dr Francis Small, said it was unfortunate that railwaymen outside Picton could become embroiled in the dispute. However, the corporation would not change the rosters. The district traffic manager in Christchurch, Mr R. J. Taylor, met officials of the national Union of Railwaymen in Picton on Saturday.

In Wellington last evening, he said he was prepared to meet them again. The reduced freight tonnage during the holiday week-end had meant that a normal complement of staff at Picton had not been needed. Workers affected by the reduced freight had been booked off.

Mr Taylor said nobody affected by the week-end roster would have received less than a 40-hour pay packet for the weeks involved.

Mr Taylor said the holiday week-end roster was a common feature of Railways and it had been successfully implemented this year with other branches of the union.

The Ministry of Agriculture was concerned about the likely condition of export produce stranded in railway yards in Marl-

borough without proper refrigeration, he said. Containers of meat, fish and cheese valued at more than $1 million are involved. The corporation had asked railwaymen to move containers carrying refrigerated produce to sidings where they would be easily accessible, but they had refused.

Last evening waggons were on sidings as far south as Ashburton because of the ban. Waggons were also piling up in the North Island.

The chairman of the Blenheim branch of the union, Mr Kevin Faithful, said last evening that the roster was simply “not acceptable.” “We just told them that the union was open to negotiations 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.

“There are staff booked on to carry out important train movements who are not certified to do that job,” Mr Faithful said. “This could cause serious injury or even a fatality.”

Mr Faithful said the union had not pointed out this fault in the roster to the corporation. “They wanted to know

what the mistake was they had made in the roster. It is not up to us to tell them what is wrong with it,” he said.

A spokesman for the corporation said last evening that Mr Faithful’s claim of uncertified staff was a “red herring.” In two days of discussions between the corporation and the union, this matter had not been raised he said.

“Mr Taylor refutes the allegations,” he said. The spokesman said he did not think that any of the freight held up in the dispute had had to be destroyed.

Some of the firms with stranded export containers of beef, fish, and lamb had organised their own cooling attempts. The spokesman said that he was unable to be specific about what would happen to staff in other centres.

“Over a period of time with no freight being moved it means that staff will be standing by with no work to do,” he said. “Does one continue paying them for doing no work?” he said.