GO-SLOW WITH ALL OF COMPANY’S VESSELS DENIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23316, 27 July 1950, Page 8

GO-SLOW WITH ALL OF COMPANY’S VESSELS DENIED

(P.A.) AUCKLAND. July 26. One hatch of the New Zealand Shipping Company's cargo liner Rangitoto was not worked by waterside workers yesterday.

A dispute arose from two incidents on Monday when two men in a Rang working No. 1 hatch requested reliefs while they went to morning and afternoon tea. These were refused. The men took their breaks and in their absence the rest of the gang "stopped work. Yesterday morning the men in that gang refused to start work until they were guaranteed pay for their two stoppages on Monday. This was finally granted by the Auckland branch of the Waterfront Industry Commission. , ,

At this stage the men demanded that they be paid for the time they had not worked while waiting for the decision of the commission. This was refused. No work was then done on that hatch and it was decided that no further work be done until the men are paici. Suggestions Challenged

Suggestions that a "go-slow” policy is in force by watersiders handling cargoes for ships controlled by the New Zealand Shipping Company have been denied by officials of both the union and the company. A stop-work meeting was helci by the Waterside Workers’ Union for threequarters of an hour from ft o clock yesterday morning. Mr. R- E. Jones, secretary of the union, said afterwards that it had been held to discuss a report from the national executive. Contained in the report was a section dealing with the wage claims and the representations made to the Waterfront Industry Authority and the Government in support of them. The Rangitoto has been in Auckland since July 10. She is due to sail for Southampton and London on August 11. This afternoon neither the New Zealand Shipping Company nor union officials would categorically deny that a "go-slow" was instituted yesterday morning. The decision, it is now stated, was made at yesterday's union stopwork meeting on the recommendation of the national executive which was to have made similar recommendations to all other ports. Although there was a definite loading lag in the Rangitoto yesterday morning supplies of frozen produce to the ship from the wharf stores have been almost normal since yesterday afternoon. The loading rate on the Rangitoto was confined by tire separate dispute which resulted in the No. 1 hatch being idle since yesterday morning. It is possible the ship will stop loading and move into the stream.