UNION EXPLAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1942, Page 6

UNION EXPLAINS

"CONFUSION CAUSED"

"We have seen the Prime Minister and we believe that the matter will be straightened out without repetition," said Mr. E. E. Canham, president of the Wellington union, last night.

He emphasised that there was no dispute with the men brought in from other ports. All were members of the national union. The dispute was with the officers of the commission for arranging the transfer' of workers without notifying the union, which in turn had led to a further complication.

This was that through the anxiety of the commission to keep the imported men together, they were sent to the principal jobs, and the local .men, who were capable of doing all classes of work, including work in freezers, were sent to small jobs, in certain of these cases starting at 6, p.m., jobs that would last normally from four to six hours.

"We have a clause in our award, .and the same applies at other ports, that the men at the home port secure preferential work, and that the transfer of labour must be arranged between the union and the employer—the commission. Through the commission not notifying us bf the transfer, our bureau officer was unable to make the necessary arrangements for our men to have their constitutional rights preserved, and to have the preference of work," said Mr. Canham. The men who came from other ports were made the innocent victims of a misunderstanding, added Mr. Canham.

"At the stop-work meeting in the afternoon the officers of the branches concerned in the transfer announced that they were leaving Wellington en masse to return to their home ports," said Mr. Canham, "but when I explained the position the meeting was unanimous in declaring that the transferees were quite welcome and it was their duty to stay and assist the local branch to straighten the whole matter out. This the transferees agreed to do."

As a result of the meeting with the Prime Minister and the local officers of the commission, a deputation from the executive of the Wellington union would wait today on the Waterfront Control Commission to clarify future procedure in connection with transfers.