LABOUR DISPUTE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 8, 7 December 1937, Page 2

LABOUR DISPUTE

AUCKLAND WATERSIDERS. NO SETTLEMENT REACHED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 6. No settlement has been reached in the labour dispute which began on tlie Auckland waterfront on Thursday. Only those ships on which labour was engaged before the trouble arose are being worked, and some have not their full complement of labour. The position has been aggravated by the arrival during the week-end of two overseas ships, an island trader, and several coasters. Vessels at present concerned in the dispute are the New Zealand Shipping Company’s passenger liners Rotorua and Rangitata, the Hamburg-Amerika freighter Gera, the Port Line’s Port Hunter, the Union Steam Ship Company’s coaster Waiana, the islands trader Matua,,the Westport Coal Company’s collier Canopus, and a number ber of intercolonial, coastal, and provincial ships. The Rangitata and the Rotorua are timetable ships . carrying passengers and mails, and delay in port may mean that they will experience difficulty in maintaining their schedules. In addition, the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company’s AVaipawa and the Port Line's Port Hobart are restricted in their cargo operations through having insufficient gangs. These, together with the Port Chalmers, had engaged a certain amount of labour before the holdup occurred. To-morrow the Huddart Parker liner Wanganella is scheduled to arrive from Sydney in the early afternoon, and the British Phosphate Commission’s chartered vessel Homeside is listed to make port with a cargo of phosphates. Partly because of the present trouble, berthage of these new arrivals will be a problem. lliose already in port have not been able to get away as soon as expected- In the Case of the AVanganella, the present tentative arrangement is to berth her in the place occupied by the Rangitata at Queen’s Wharf and to transfer the Rangitata to the Kairanga's berth, also at the Queen’s Wharf. No arrangements have yet been made for the Homeside. DELAY TO MAILS. Tdr Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 6. One Christmas mail and two other mails for England will be delayed in delivery if a settlement is not reached in the next few days in the labour dispute on the Auckland waterfront. In addition, mails arriving to-morrow by the Wanganella from Australia will have to be unloaded by other means waterfront labour. The AVanganella. is at present due to leave Auckland for Sydney on Thursday and she will have on board New Zealand mail which must connect with the air mail closing at Sydney on Tuesday if it is to be delivered in England on Boxing Day. If she cannot leave before Thursday it will be touch and go whether the connection is made, and the mail will arrive in England on December 29 if the air mail is missed. Both the Port Chalmers and AViiipawa will have mails for Great Britain, Ireland and Europe, and the Matua will carry mail to the Islands. Some delays in the delivery of these mails will also occur if the dispute is not settled. Mail from Australia by the AA’anganella will be brought off the ship on her arrival by Post Office employees, arrangements' for this having already been made, and no delay will occur in its delivery. Similar arrangements will be made for the loading of outward mails into other ships.

MINISTERS DELIBERATE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 6. When the waterfront trouble in Auckland was mentioned to the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) to-day he refused to comment on the position. The whole question had been left in the hands of the Minister of Labour (Mr Armstrong), the Minister of Marine (Mr Fraser) and the Minister of Mines (Mr Webb). After Cabinet met this morning these Ministers were appointed a special Cabinet committee and the ordinary Cabinet has been deliberating without their attendance. When approached this afternoon, the Minister of Labour said he was not in a position to make a statement. He and the other two Ministers concerned were still deliberating on the position.

MEETING ARRANGED. HOPE OF SETTLEMENT. Per Press Association. AVELLINGTON, Dec. 6. The Minister of Labour (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) said in an interview that, as a. result of negotiations between the special committee of Cabinet, representatives of shipping companies, and the men, a meeting had been arranged to take place at Auckland at 8 a.m. to-morrow. This would be attended by representatives of shipping companies and the men, and it was hoped that the basis of a settlement would be reached at this meeting. No official Government point of view would be expressed at the meeting, as it was agreed to-day that at this stage direct negotiations between the men and the companies was the course most likely to bring about a settlement.

The chairman and secretary of the Auckland AA’aterside AVorkers’ Union were at present attending a conference at Wanganui, said the Minister, and at his request they had agreed to return to Auckland for to-morrow’s conference. A representative of the Wellington shipping companies would also attend the meeting and would leave AVellington by ’plane this afternoon. The Government rvould consider what further action was necessary after to-morrow’s meeting. STORAGE OF ' WOOL. CONGESTION AT. STATION. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. 6. A serjous aspect of the shipping hold-up in which 1000 watersider workers are involved is that the wool stores are overflowing, and owing to congestion at the Auckland railway station a start was made to-day to store wool in a shed under the main station building. Mr B. J. Marquet, president of the Auckland AVoolbrokers’ Association, 6aid that at least 10,000 bales were awaiting shipment and the offerings for the January sales, were arriving from all parts of the district. Unless the pressure is relieved by early shipments, the farmers would have to be told to hold their wool, and this would upset the sale operations. '