SHIPPING HOLD-UP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19550, 4 February 1938, Page 4

SHIPPING HOLD-UP

COASTAL SHIP’S CARGO RIGHT TO WORK SHIP APPLICATION OF AWARDS The first case recorded in which the recent ruling of the Arbitration Court defining Ihe rights of the seamen and waterside workers’ unions in the working of cargo on smaller coastal vessels has been tested occured in Gisborne to-day. when the Richardson Company’s Awahou, 206 tons net register, was held up at the Kaiti wharves for lack of labour to work in the holds.

When the usual preparations were made for working the ship to-day, the seamen aboard the Awahou intimated to the master that they had been instructed by their union headquarters at Wellington to man the winches, in pursuance of the conditions of their award.

The demand being communicated to the Richardson Company’s manager, and the waterside workers’ union being also advised of the position taken up by the Seamen’s Union, a discussion resulted in the waterside workers refusing to work in the ship in co-opera-tion with the seamen, though they were prepared to furnish a gang for working the cargo on the wharves. The company being prepared to accept this condition, it was found that the seamen were not prepared to go into the holds without definite instructions from the headquarters of the union, and during the morning an endeavour was made to have the Seamen’s Union’s intentions clarified. Hopes for Work This Afternoon

It was hoped that by this .afternoon the matter would be cleared up, and that the Awahou’s cargo would be worked with seamen labour aboard the vessel and waterside labour on the wharf. The hold-up is of considerable interest in that it arises not from any dispute between employers and employees, but between the claims of one union and another to the allocation of work on small vessels. It is well known that the Arbitration Court was faced with a difficult question when the Waterside Workers' Federation filed its application for an award, which included an agreed clause giving them the exclusive right to work vessels on which the award of the Seamen’s Union, already registered by the court, had given the seamen a right to employment in the working of cprgo. The court achieved a compromise by ruling that on small ships where it had been the custom to use seamen labour in the past that custom should be continued; the tonnage of ships covered by this ruling being fixed at 275 tons as a maximum.

The Outstanding Point

The outstanding point in connection with the Awahou dispute appears to be that in the past it has been the custom for cargo to be worked by waterside labour, both on deck and in the holds, as well as on the wharves. The Waterside Workers' Union maintains that the ruling of the Arbitration Court continues its past right to work the Awahou’s cargo, and refuse to share the work with the seamen, though willing to provide a gang for the wharf work. The position in which the shipping company found itself this morning was that labour was available for working the winches and also for handling the cargo on the wharf, but that none was to be had for working the cargo out of the hold.