SYDNEY WATERFRONT DISPUTE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 5

SYDNEY WATERFRONT DISPUTE

Several Ships Without Labour (Rec. 0.15 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 9. Nearly half of the ships working cargo at Sydney to-day were affected by a dispute at the picking-up centre over working hours under the new shift system. This may leave the Mariposa, due to-morrow morning, short of labour.

To-day 1900 waterside workers are idle. Twenty-one ships are short of labour and six others are entirely without labour. Under the new system waterside workers are expected to work to 9 p.m. when no night labour is available. If there is night labour they may finish at 7 p.m. There was a shortage yesterday, but the waterside workers on the Waiwera stopped at 7 p.m. They were suspended by the Port Committee and other gangs refused to work the ship this morning. The Communist-controlled Ironworkers’ Union and the members of the breakaway union which recently was refused registration are-still engaged in a wrangle over Nobel’s explosive factory which threatens the supply of mine explosives for New Zealand and Australia. The men have threatened to declare the factory “ black ” if an employee is not dismissed. He is an anti-Communist, W. T. Lloyd. The factory refuses to dismiss him.