Port workers vote on action

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 3

Port workers vote on action

By

PAM MORTON

Watersiders will hold stopwork meetings at all New Zealand ports today to consider further tactics in their battle with employers over waterfront reform.

Union representatives from all ports met the union’s national executive in Wellington yesterday to discuss the breakdown in the union’s national award talks last week. The national secretary of the Waterfront Workers’ Union, Mr Sam Jennings, said recommendations would be put to members. He would not say what they were. Talks between workers and employers broke down on Thursday with no progress being made. The union says the dispute hinges on employers’ demands for individual employment agreements for each port. Watersiders are adamant they want to keep a national award. Employers are bracing themselves for another round of waterfront strikes after stoppages at ports throughout the country.

Striking watersiders at Lyttelton, Gisborne, Whangarei and Timaru return today to an immediate stopwork meeting.

The employers’ advocate, Mr John Button, said the stoppages had been “a real nuisance” and were costing the country a lot of money. He confirmed the employers’ intention to seek real reform on the waterfront.

Employers wanted watersiders to be directly employed and for staff to be able to work for other employers if necessary. They also wanted provision for casual labour to be taken on in busy times. Mr Jennings said the proposals amounted to major industrial reform rather than changes to waterside working conditions. At Lyttelton watersiders have disputed claims that they were responsible for the breakdown in container terminal award talks on Tuesday. The president of the Lyttelton branch of the union, Mr Arthur Beckett said workers had gone on strike over safety procedures in the container terminal.

The treatment of a worker injured after falling on a ship gangway on

Monday had been delayed because the ambulance had difficulty in finding its way into the terminal. Changes to roading in the area had compounded the problem. "It is impossible to get in there now because nobody knows how to get in,” he said. Workers were also very angry over suggestions that 217 redundancies were likely at the port after the Waterfront Industry Commission was dismantled on September 30, he said. The union had been told in June that about 130 workers might be made redundant under the new port regime. The largest stevedoring company on the wharf, New Zealand Stevedoring, has indicated only 60 jobs will be available with the company after October 1. The company’s South Island manager, Mr Brian Stevens, said the number could change subject to the outcome of the award negotiations.

Mr Stevens said two other stevedoring companies, British Phosphate and Lyttelton Stevedoring, had not yet agreed on the number of workers needed. “If we were the only stevedores at the port then we would have to look at the figures again,”

he said. The Lyttelton Port Company has already indicated its intention to employ a permanent workforce of 124 watersiders in the container terminal under the new system. About 22 workers are likely to be employed by Pacificia Shipping on its roll-on, roll-off service. Mr Beckett said one of the union’s main fears was a return to the seagulling system, last used in the 19705, where casual workers had to line up each day in the hope of work. Meanwhile, a survey of Canterbury manufacturing exporters indicates that a prolonged waterfront dispute will have a serious affect on employment, says the director of the

Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, Mr lan Howell.