Nelson port strike

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 2

Nelson port strike

Nelson reporter

The Port of Nelson will effectively be shut down until Friday after harbour workers walked off the job yesterday in protest about a redundancy agreement

The industrial officer for the New Zealand Harbour Workers’ Union, Mr Eddie Dickson, said the strike took effect at 10.30 a.m. after a meeting of the union’s Nelson executive.

“A meeting of the full membership will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday to review the situation,” he said.

As union members crew the port’s tugs and pilot launch, no ship will be able to enter or leave for the duration of the strike. A wood chip carrier, a log ship and a fish carrier were in port when the strike was declared and a coastal tanker and two cargo vessels are due to berth later this week. The strike involves all 93 harbour union members at the port, including clerical staff. The Nelson Harbour Board’s salaried staff are performing some functions, such as working the radios and the watch service duties which are normally performed by

harbour workers. The possibility of strike action first arose after the board announced its intention to make 13 of its 50 land-based harbour workers redundant as part of the port’s restructuring. Eight weeks formal notice of its intention to announce redundancies was issued on September 3. The union responded by giving 14 days notice of strike action which expired on Monday. Mr Dickson said the harbour workers at the port had worked closely with the board for a number of years to. help maintain the port’s viability, but their enthusiasm had been “dealt a grievous blow” by the board’s attitude to the redundancy settlement. The union had asked the board to call for voluntary redundancies and early retirement, he said. However, the board had indicated it would make compulsory redundancies. Mr Dickson said the

union had had three meetings with board officials and during the last discussion had reduced the amount of the redundancy payments it sought in an effort to encourage a settlement However, the board had responded with an altered offer that the union had rejected as unreasonable. Mr Dickson said voluntary redundancies and early retirement would enable the board to reduce the workforce to the level it required "without acrimony.”

“If the redundancies are enforced, it does not augur well for future industrial relations at the port,” he said. The board was not identifying positions which should be made redundant, just numbers of workers, Mr Dickson said. “They will still expect the workers who remain to undertake the duties of the men who are made redundant”

The board’s general manager, Mr Doug Green,

said this week that the two parties were "quite a way apart” at their last meeting, and arbitration was the only way to reach a settlement. The board had applied for a dispute of right hearing to be heard by the chief mediator next Monday. The chief executive of the Harbours Association, Mr Joe Murray, believed strike action was illegal, under the terms of the harbour workers award, because dispute proceedings were in progress. However, Mr Dickson, who has accused the board of dodging its responsibility as ain employer by seeking arbitration, said the union had not been officially notified about the application for a disputes hearing. \ After receiving notice, of industrial - action, the board advised shipping companies and other clients that disruption was likely at the port, Mr Green said before the strike.