OVERSEAS SHIP IDLE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 120, 16 February 1944, Page 4

OVERSEAS SHIP IDLE

Watersiders Stop Work ORDERS TO RESUME NOT OBEYED Legal Action To Be Taken Following a dispute on Monday, watersiders working an overseas ship at Wellington ceased work at 2.30 that afternoon, and the vessel has continued idle since then, though the men were ordered by the Waterfront Control Commission to resume work yesterday morning pending a settlement of the dispute. Captain R. E. Price, commissioner of waterfront control, stated yesterday afternoon that the commission intended to take legal action against the men. A notice to this effect was issued on Monday by Captain C. C. Vanden Bergh. Wellington Waterfront Controller, which stated that unless the men resumed work immediately and permitted the dispute to take its constitutional course, proceedings for a breach of the Waterfront Control Commission Emergency Regulations, 1940, would be taken against every man concerned.

Mr. E. A. Napier, secretary of the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union, said yesterday afternoon that the union was,endeavouring to have the matter put through constitutional channels. “The men are quite prepared to go back to work,” he said, “that is, if they all go back and there is no discrimination.”

When shown Mr. Napier’s statement, Captain Price said that the commission had endeavoured to get the men to deal in a constitutional way with all disputes. bqt the men lately had taken direct action in a number of cases. In this case of the overseas ship, a representative of the men had advised the commission “that unless certain demands made against the Wellington Harbour Board be guaranteed to be met by the commission the whole of the men on the ship would ceas£ work.” This was rather an extraordinary way of dealing with a dispute in a constitutional manner, commented Captain Price. The commission had advised the men to resume work at 8 a.m. yesterday, but they had refused to do so.

“I will allow the public to judge whether this is standing by constitutional procedure.” Captain Price said. The commission regretted the necessity of instituting proceedings against the men, for it appreciated how goodwill depended more on co-operation than on penalties provided by the law, and the commission had therefore gone to the utmost lengths to promote goodwill. “It seems apparent, however, that this attitude has been accepted as an invitation to flout the authority of the commission/’ concluded Captain Price, “and as mediation and persuasion have failed only arbitrary action remained.”

AUCKLAND DEADLOCK CONTINUES

Dispute About Gangway

Dominion Special Service.

AUCKLAND, February 15. Ships were once again idle in the port today when the stalemate between the Waterfront Commission and the Auckland Watersiders’ Union reached its fifth day. With one exception, the only ships working were those for which labour had been engaged before the dispute about the allegedly unsafe gangway arose on Thursday afternoon. The president of the union, Mr. 11. Barnes, said today that no officer of the union had been consulted by the commission when the men were dismissed at the start of the trouble. An arbitrary attitude had been adopted by Captain C. V. Stanich, the Auckland Waterfront Controller, in that he would take no steps to remedy the gangway. The gangway was unsafe, he added, and though it had certainly since been rectified to some extent it did not comply with the regulations and remained dangerous. A duckboard from the wharf to the end of the gangway would have satisfied the men.

Captain Stanich said today that in view of Mr. Barnes’ statement, it was time that the facts regarding the original attempts to settle the dispute were made public. The assistant waterfront controller and a wharf superintendent, he said, had inspected and tested the gangway and then assured the ship’s union delegate that it was quite safe. The following statement was issued today by the Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores’ Association :—

“This is not a question of the safety of a ship’s gangway but solely one of the union executive fighting for the power to run the waterfront as they think fit. and therefore fighting the Government of the country, which is represented in nthis case by the Waferfront Control Commission. Time and again there are threats of ceasing work if this or that dispute is not decided as the union thinks fit. But the time must come when to placate must, cease, and the recognized method of settleinent become a fact and not a farce." A wire, strop on the bridle securing the • end of the gangway over which the present dispute arose snapped this evening and the gangway dropped. According to the shin’s officials the wire snapped because of a failure to slacken the lashing from the gangway to the wharf. This lashing was used for steadying the gangway at low water when the ship's rail was below the level of the wharf.