Union appeals for Govt to intervene in dispute

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 12

Union appeals for Govt to intervene in dispute

PA Wellington The Government should intervene in the dispute between the Shipping Corporation and the crew of the New Zealand Mariner in Melbourne, says the Waterfront Workers Federation.

The appeal follows the corporation’s announcement that it had “officially abandoned” 13 former crew in Australia after they ignored a Sunday deadline for repatriation. The crew — an engineer and 12 cooks and stewards — are still on the ship and the corporation has already failed to win a Labour Court order to end the occupation. “I suggest that the unions representing the 13 ex-crew members should understand that the

board of the corporation has determined to bring the crewing time off and terms and conditions provisions for crew on the New Zealand Mariner into line with economic and efficient levels,” the corporation’s chairman, Mr lan Farrant, said in a statement. “If the unions are prepared to see their members stuck in a foreign country without the protection the corporation can afford them, then that is their decision.

“It makes a mockery of their claims that the corporation dumped union members in Tahiti and Port Moresby with no regard for their well-being. Neither the corporation nor its customers can tolerate the hijacking of their assets by former employees,” Mr Farrant said. The federation’s general secretary, Mr Sam Jennings, said the matter was serious and the Government had to move while it still had some credibility in world trade.

Mr Jennings told the "New Zealand Herald” that shipping agents had said cargo was piling up at storage sheds on both sides of the Tasman. “There are crew on board the New Zealand Mariner so she is ready to sail immediately, “There are not enough ships doing the Tasman run.” Mr Jennings said a special meeting of the Maritime, Transport and General Workers’ Federation last Friday had condemned the corporation’s action.