MR BARNES ON LOADING OF YUGOSLAV SHIP

Grey River Argus, 23 April 1948, Page 5

MR BARNES ON LOADING OF YUGOSLAV SHIP

WELLINGTON, April 20.

“The Prime Minister’ has made an attack on the officials of the Auckland branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union Based on premises which are not correct in any one instance,” sad Mr Barnes, when informed that the Prime Minister’s letter was to be published. “I do not think it. is too •much' to ask that he publicly withdraw his charges.” Mr Barnes said the Radnik loaded wool, hides, frozen fish and passenger’s luggage and effects. Mr Fraser had claimed that the general rate of loading was 27 tons a gang an hour, as against the average rate of 16.35 tons on overseas shins. The Radnik loaded absolutely no general cargo. The Prime Minister had admitted ;hqf hides were loaded at the rate of 9.04 tons an hour, against the average of 11 tons, continued Mr Barnes. The Radnik was a first-class ship for loading, and the reason for the slow rate was that there was practically no supervision. 1 “So bad was the situation that the master of the ship complained to our union office,” said Mr Barnes. “After investigating the position, we found loading being so badly conducted that we advised the agents, the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, that unless the job was supervised we would supervise ourselves and transfer union gangs to the Radnik for a 6 p.m. start. “Statement of Intention” “This was not a su~~«stion, as the Prime Minister’ says, but a statement of intention, and it was successful in persuading the company to exercise reasonable control. In spite of this the rate of loading was not good. The hides were being loaded in a practically empty hatch and in the square with no long carry back. The average rate of loading in such favourable conditions is about 17 tons a gang an hour. On this ship the rate was 9.04 tons. I wish to make it quite clear that my criticism of this is solely on the supervision. “Wool was loaded into one of the after-hatches by the Yugoslavs themselves,” continued Mr Barnes. “They did a good job, but the reason is that they had substantially more men in the gang than the 23 men who normally comprise a loading gang. This was the only cargo loaded that exceeded the average. Mr Fraser’s other reference to a breach of the commission’s order is equally inaccurate. The fact is that when the union’s .walking delegate went to advise the bureau clerk to make the transfer the .clerk was on other transfer work and could not be reached until it was too late to make the transfer.”

“SIMPLY CHILDISH,” SAYS MR FRASER “To talk of a simole statement of fact as an ‘attack’ is simply childish and worthy only of tolerant and amused contempt,” said the Prime Minister to-day in reply to Mr Barnes’s statement. “The figures of the loading of the Radnik I have given are accurate, but' Mr "Barnes cannot hide the super-interest he and his colleague took in the loading of the Radnik under the hides —there is no hide-out there.

“The fact admitted by Mr Barnes is that he and his colleagues took a special keen, active, beneficial interest in the loading of the Yugoslav ship. When have' they done the same for a British ship? If they can establish the fact that it is their custom and practice to do so and can quote similar cases, I will admit that I have been wrongly informed. “If Mr Barnes will produce the required evidence it will save a lot of unnecessary discussion and render avoidable submssion to the next meeting of the branch of a resolution condemning myself, which in the absence of that proof will mean nothing.” MR BARNES’S REPLY

A further statement was made tonight bv Mr Barnes. He said the nontransfer of labo’i- tn the Radnik was not condoned and the bureau clerk could not be reached until it was too late to make the transfer. When the port committee again functioned it would receive a claim for wages for the unon men who should have been transferred.

“A very poor job was done on the Radnik,” continued Mr Barnes, “hut on the other hand members of my union have since 1940 increased the overseas loadin'- rate on British ships by 28.57 per cent. This increase is obtained from the official figures of the Waterfront Industry Commission, and is based on the basic rate for loading laid down by the commission itself Tn 1940.” Commenting on the Prime Minister’s question whether the union had ever taken a special interest in a British ship, Mr Barnes said the branch wanted to supervise the job itself. Mr Fraser new that for 'the last four years the union had been making this request to the Government and the Waterfront Commissions for all ships trading on the coast. However, all their efforts had been frustrated.