Taranaki strike closes port

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 8

Taranaki strike closes port

PA New Plymouth Industrial action brought Port Taranaki to a standstill yesterday and it is now closed to all shipping. The 150 members of the Taranaki branch of the Harbour Board Employees’ Union went on strike after a breakdown in talks on Monday in Wellington over conditions of employment in the dredge Ngamotu which is being fitted with a new engine at Lyttelton. Two ships are confined to port by the strike, and the Atropos Island, from Lyttelton, due today, will not be able to berth. The union’s national secretary, Mr Ralph Qgrdelan, said yesterday tharfitt-

ing the new engine would take six months. Employees were required to live in hotels on the waterfront and working conditions were outside the scope of the award. He said union members would meet tomorrow morning to consider a progress report. A picket was posted yesterday on the Ngamotu at Lyttelton, Mr Gerdelan said. Workers were available in case of emergency, he said. The chief executive of the Harbour Board Industrial Union of Employers, Mr Joe Murray, said that claims by the employees’ union, representing eight workers, over working conditions were “very exorbitant.”