Court to rule on Lyttelton dispute

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 1

Court to rule on Lyttelton dispute

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

The company at the centre of a row on the Lyttelton waterfront will go to the Labour Court tomorrow morning to get watersiders back to work.

The company, New Zealand Stevedoring, suspended four watersiders on Friday after the Lyttelton Waterfront Workers’ Union refused to allow the loading of a Japanese coal ship, the Yamanaka Maru.

The action arose from a fresh demarcation dispute over the right to operate one of three front-end loaders at the port. The row follows the resolution of a dispute over the handling of container ships which had ports at a standstill for three weeks earlier this month.

The dispute arises from a landmark demarcation ruling registered last month in which watersiders won the right to use equipment owned by their employers, the stevedoring companies. Harbour workers then claimed the right to drive equipment provided by their employers — in this case all three front-end loaders leased by the Lyttelton Port Company, Ltd. The three front-end loaders are used to transfer coal from the port stockpile to the con-veyor-belt ship loader. But Lyttelton watersiders also want to retain their right to work one of the loaders, regardless of ownership — a right gained in a 1974 agreement. The secretary of the Lyttelton Waterfront Workers’ Union, Mr Warren Collins, said last evening

that traditional right was not wiped by last month’s demarcation ruling. “We were suspended because we would not work the ship; we would not work the ship because we were not allowed to. use the front-end loader.” The southern regional manager of New Zealand Stevedoring, Mr Brian Stevens, said his company’s lawyer would seek an interim injunction from the Labour Court tomorrow, to get watersiders back to work. Mr Stevens said he was hopeful of getting the hearing completed quickly and talks under way while work continued at the port. He said the company had made an application to be heard by the Labour Court on Friday evening but it had been too late. The dispute centred on the Yamanaka Maru, and Mr Stevens said the company would try to confine it to the one ship. The secretary of the Lyttelton branch of the Harbour Workers’ Union, Mr Paul Corliss, said the situation was regrettable. Mr Corliss said last month’s agreement was signed by watersiders, harbour workers and the two employer groups and was classed as a consent order of the Labour Court. He said that at the time all parties believed the agreement would resolve this type of issue.