Jubilee Dock made ‘a museum piece’

Press, 8 March 1988, Page 2

Jubilee Dock made ‘a museum piece’

PA Nelson Featherbedding ! of w'atersiders at Wellington’s Jubilee Dock had turned it into a museum piece, said a spokesman for the dock’s owners! in Nelson yesterday. I

A director of Nalder and Biddle, Mr Charles Hufflett, said the dbek.. would be used as a basis for an expanding marine repair facility. “We do not, however, agree to continuing past inefficient and costly work practices,” he said. "To do so would be commercial suicide.” Mr Hufflett described an assertion on Friday by the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union secretary, Mr Ray Cutter, that Nalder and Biddle had no intention of keeping the dock functioning as “a figment of his imagination.”

Mr Cutter said last Friday that Nalder and Biddle had paid between $90,000 and $lOO,OOO for the Jubilee Dock to force the Nelson Harbour Board

into improving the Nelson slipway to take bigger ships. Mr Hufflett said the quoted price was incor- 1 rect. He said that last! week the company had advised the Harbour Board it viewed its move to Wellington as complementary to its Nelson enterprise. Vessels of up to 1600 tons could be repaired in Nelson, and larger ships in Wellington. Nalder and Biddle, Nelson’s biggest marine en-; gineering firm, assumed ownership of the Jubilee Dock on Saturday, the same day the Cook Strait rail ferry Arahanga was due to go into it for her annual survey. j Searail cancelled the booking and instead booked the ferry into the Calliope Dock in Auckland. ,

Mr Hufflett said Searail’s stated reason was that Nalder and die could not guarantee there would not be indusitrial problems. Mr Hufflett said

Wellington watersiders did not have, nor ever had had, exclusive coverage of some work on the dock.

"They have convinced employers lof this situation, resulting in a featherbedding option which has made the dock a museum piece instead of the thriving engineering business it should be.” Nalder and Biddle had no objection to watersiders working on the dock if they were competitive with professional trades. They had] been offered rates equivalent to the metal trades award — about $l3 an hour. “We see! no reason why it is necessary for shipowners to pay $32 to $33 an hour as in the past. “To give an example, the labour cost to paint the Arahanga last year was about !$70,000. Private contractors do the same work for i $28,000. These excessive costs apply to the total vessel overhaul and repair bill, making it uneconomic."