DECLARED BLACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27385, 10 May 1950, Page 6

DECLARED BLACK

Freighter's Cement Cargo AUCKLAND WHARF LABOUR PA AUCKLAND, May 9. The cement cargo of the freighter King Neptune was today declared black by a unanimous decision of the Auckland Waterside Workers’- Union. This was the main outcome of a stopwork meeting held in the morning. The union has refused to touch the ship’s cargo until its claims on the size of the gangs working the ship have been met. The call was then made for non-union labour for the King Neptune, but there was no response, although men were waiting for work. The number of unionists on penalty for refusing to work the King Neptune on Monday morning is now about 108. The ship has not been given manning priority. Produce Ships Following a request from the Grain, Seed, and Produce Merchants’ Federation to give some degree of berthing priority to ships arriving with southern potatoes, the Auckland Harbour Board decided today to direct the harbour master to continue to make every effort to berth them as soon as possible. Onus On Companies -The main responsibility- for conditions at the Port of Auckland, which had resulted in the Conference Lines’ proposal to impose a per, cent, surcharge on inward freight rates, rested with the shipping companies themselves. This was the burden of a letter which the Auckland Harbour Board decided to send to the Prime Minister, Mr Holland, through the Minister of Labour, Mr Sullivan. “The shipping companies themselves load and unload ships at Auckland, and although thebe are some contributory, causes over which they have no control, the main factor causing their increased costs, with the consequent imposition of a 7J per cent, surcharge, is a progressive deterioration in the time they themselves take to load and discharge their own ships,” stated the letter.