BELLONA RATINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26451, 3 May 1947, Page 6

BELLONA RATINGS

NEW PHASE OF DISPUTE

INTERVENTION BY LABOURERS’

UNION

P.A. AUCKLAND, May 2. Trade union support for the ratings absent without leave from the cruiser Bellona has crystallised into a request by the Labourers’ Union to the Minister of Defence for the dispute to be placed in the same category as that of the Philomel men, so that the Bellona ratings can be given the option of taking their discharge. The request was forwarded to the Minister through the secretary of the Federation of Labour, Mr K. McL. Baxter, who replied to the Labourers’ Union to-day that Mr Jones had said that the' Bellona men were in a different category from the Philomel ratings because they had had an opportunity of seeing the new rates of pay and conditions and of making representations if necessary. The spokesmen for the Bellona ratings said to-day that their case was in the same category as that of the Philomel men because the only factor preventing them from taking simultaneous action with the Philomel ratings was that the Bellona was in Australian waters at the time, and they decided through a sense of loyalty to bring the Bellona home before taking action. They contended that trouble in the Bellona was apparently anticipated by the authorities, as she was recalled direct to Auckland from Hobart, arriving 11 days earlier than was planned in the original orders The men say that strike action was mooted when the Bellona was in Australian waters when 400 specific points of dissatisfaction were listed. The men say that these were coded and radioed to New Zealand.