Guild wants ship lay-off deal

Press, 4 February 1989, Page 3

Guild wants ship lay-off deal

By

PAM MORTON

The reflagging of Shipping Corporation vessels had reinforced the need for a redundancy agreement for ships’. officers, says a member of the New Zealand Merchant Service Guild. The guild’s assistant secretary, Mr Mark Davis, said the reflagging issue had shown the urgency of putting together a redundancy agreement for officers employed by the corporation. Mr Davis said the guild had been talking about the need for such an agreement for the last two years. Officers on the tanker Tarihiko went on strike earlier this week in support of the guild’s redundancy claims. The three striking officers and remaining crew were suspended by the corporation on Wednesday when the officers refused to return to work. The Tarihiko has been laid up in Manukau Harbour since Tuesday. The strike action has also held up the Omega 808 in New Plymouth. The Omega is an offshore supply vessel owned by a subsidiary of the Shipping Corporation. Mr Davis said the matter of a redundancy agreement for the officers had been dragging on for a long time. “They still haven’t boxed out a working agreement with us,” he said. Mr Davis said informal talks had been held between the corporation and the guild to try and resolve the matter. The operations manager for Liquigas, Ltd, the owners of the Tarihiko, Mr Steven Porritt, said the industrial action had not affected any supply of liquid petroleum gas to the South Island. Supplies normally delivered to Auckland by tanker had been delivered by road, said Mr Porritt. The Tarihiko last called at the Port of Lyttelton on January 26 and is not expected to make another delivery until mid-Febru-ary. The tanker is the third vessel, either owned or operated by the corporation, to be targeted for industrial action. Industrial action by members of the Maritime Unions have affected the Tui, New Zealand Mariner, and Tarihiko.