NO CHANGE AT TOKOMARU BAY: DECISION AFFIRMED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22696, 22 July 1948, Page 6

NO CHANGE AT TOKOMARU BAY: DECISION AFFIRMED

Members of the Waterside Workers’ Union at Tokomaru Bay have affirmed their decision to all work in connection with shipping until the payment of the minimum weekly wage is restored to them and the Waterfront Industry Commission classifies the ships employed to handle meat from -the Tokomaru Bay works as lighters. This affirmation was made at a special meeting held yesterday, at which information from Wellington indicated that the Waterfront Commission had further interested itself in the dispute which, since last week, has made it necessary for all cargo intended to Tokomaru Bay to be consigned to Gisborne for road-transport delivery

The dispute had its origins in a claim by the workers that the meatships working coastwise from Tokomaru Bay, loading at the Tokomaru Bay wharf for transhipment to overseas vessels at other ports, should be classified as lighters. If this claim had succeeded, the men at Tokomaru Bay would have been eligible for a substan’ial additional hourly payment, provision for which was included in their award to cover lightering to a vessel in the roadstead.

This claim was rejected by the commission. which directed that Tokomaru Bay watersiders remove the embargo on the loading of meat out of the freezing-works. This loading-out had been interrupted for some weeks. When the workers in tur n rejected the decision of the commission, the latter authority ruled that they were ineligible for the minimum weekly payment.

Further steps proposed by the commission have not been made public. The dispute is regarded as existing between the union branch and the commission, and does not involve the shipping companies which operate coastal vessels calling at Tokomaru Bay.