NORMAL CONDITIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22629, 22 April 1937, Page 9

NORMAL CONDITIONS

ACTIVITY ON WATERFRONT NEW DECK CREW FOR KAREPO Waterfront activity this morning was not disturbed by the undercurrent or dissatisfaction that resulted in wharf labourers meeting yesterday to discuss various charges of indolence levelled against them as a class, and especially to protest as a body against the published statement in the ‘ Star ’ by one man closely connected with shipping to the effect that the waterside workers in Dunedin were “ the biggest lot of loafers in God’s earth and the best paid.” When the call for labour was made at 8 o’clock this morning the men answered freely, the work of discharging two overseas ships proceeding normally. Commenting on the statement to-day, the secretary of the Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr S. B. Macdonald) said that such a charge would have precipitated a strike extending throughout the Dominion had not the present Government been a Labour one. After being delayed from sailing since Tuesday through the deck crew being discharged, the Karepo is to sail tor Bluff to-night, a new crew having been engaged from Wellington. The nine disgruntled deck hands were passengers by this morning’s north express, and they state that the dispute arose because the owners of the vessel, the Union Steam Ship Company, had refused their request to be paid off on Monday morning. This action was the upshot of alleged' dissatisfaction by the men with certain officers of the Karepo. They point out that they gave the statutory 24 hours’ notice acquainting the company of their intention to terminate their engagement. This notice, however, was not accepted, and the men bold that the delay to the vessel was therefore not their fault. The deck hands said that they would not disclose the reasons for their objection to the Karepo’s officers, but they stated that they would have been prepared to take the vessel to sea again if certain conditions were agreed Jo by jdie company..