“SAFE TO HANDLE”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22584, 12 March 1948, Page 6

“SAFE TO HANDLE”

HATCHES ON VESSEL MOUNTPARK DISPUTE COMMISSION’S FINDING (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 11. The Waterfront Industry Commission considers that the hatches on the Mountpark in Auckland, are safe to handle without the assistance of the shin’s gear or cranes. Announcing this today, the commission said the submission of the National Executive of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, which waited on the commission on Tuesday afternoon and discussed the Mountpark dispute, had been carefully considered. The commission, in its statement, stresses that the hatches on the Mountpark are of a type frequently found in New Zealand ports and that they had been manhandled in the course of removing and replacing them for years past. The hatches on the Mountpark, the statement added, vary little in size or weight from many others to be found in New Zealand ports today and about which there have been no complaints“lt has been suggested by the union that the question as to whether or not men were wrongfully dismissed can be contested by a court action. The commission is prepared to facilitate this being done.” The commission also offered to facilitate court proceedings in connection with its actions in the men being placed on penalty if the union desired to test the commission’s decision.