NO WORK DONE BY WATERSIDERS

Southland Times, Issue 25747, 10 August 1945, Page 4

NO WORK DONE BY WATERSIDERS

IRON' STACKED NEAR LABOUR BUREAU

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, August 9. Nearly 300 waterside workers refused to accept employment today when a dispute arose over a quantity of angle iron which had been stacked on the Central Wharf near the Labour Bureau. Their objection was that the iron partly obstructed.the area outside the bureau where they pick up their discs to signify their acceptance of the work assigned them, and it was claimed that iron stacked in that position constituted a danger to the large body of men passing it, some of whom might have tripped and been injured.

Most of the men went home after the hours of engagement had passed and several ships were affected by the shortage of labour. Other men who had been previously engaged continued to work, but in most cases the number of gangs had to be reduced. Rain prevented work in the afternoon in any case. No action was taken in the matter by the Waterfront Control Commission. The offending angle iron was removed later in the day by the consignee. It is understood that at the monthly stopwork meeting of the union on Wednesday the men carried a resolution that if the Auckland Harbour Board persisted in stacking iron and steel in the space at the head of the Central Wharf near the Labour Bureau they would cease to accept work on vessels.