COMING TO A HEAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 4

COMING TO A HEAD

WATERFRONT DIFFERENCES UNION AND COMMISSION Industrial Correspondent WELLINGTON, May 24. A new “ show-down ” on the New Zealand waterfront is threatened because of the breakdown of negotiations between national officers of the Waterside Workers’ Union and the Waterfront Industry Commission over the Mountpark dispute at Auckland. Mr H. Barnes, president, and Mr T. Hill, secretary of the union, had talks to-day with the commission but failed to reach a settlement, and it is likely that the full national council of the union will be summoned for an early meeting. If a decision is made, to take this course it will indicate the intention of the union officers to have relations with the commission fully threshed out not only over the Mountpark but over general issues. The national officers will meet to-morrow for further discussions. The Mountpark dispute first developed two months ago when the watersiders at Auckland refused to handle the hatches on the Mountpark, a Union Company vessel, because they considered them unsafe. The dispute has led to a sharpening of differences between the union and the commission which now appear to be fast coming to a head.