WATERSIDE HOLD-UP AT AUCKLAND

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 268, 10 August 1945, Page 9

WATERSIDE HOLD-UP AT AUCKLAND

300 Men Refuse Work

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 9.

Nearly 300 waterside workers refused to accept, employment today when a dispute arose over a quantity of angle iron which had been stacked on Central Wharf near the Labour Bureau. Their objection was that the iron partly obstructed the area outside the bureau where they pick up their discs to signify their acceptance of work assigned them, and it was claimed that iron stacked initial position constituted a danger to a large body of men passing it, some of whom might have tripped and been injured. Most of the men went home after the hours of engagement Intd passed, and several ships -were affected by shortage of labour. Other men who had been previously engaged continued to work, but in most cases the number of gangs bad to be reduced. Kain prevented work in the afternoon in any ease. .No action was fatten in the matter by the Waterfront Control Commission. The offending angle iron was removed later in the day by the consignee. It is understood that at the monthly stopwork meeting of the union on Wednesday the men adopted a resolution to the effect that, if the Auckland Harbour Board persisted in stacking iron and steel in the space at the head of Central Wharf near the Labour ' Bureau, they would cease to accept work on vessels.