NO SETTLEMENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21186, 5 November 1938, Page 22

NO SETTLEMENT

Shipping Dispute In Auckland Discontent Brewing For Some Time By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND, November 4. After a two and a half hour conference between representatives of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union and the Port of Auckland Shipping and Stevedores’ Association this afternoon, the position regarding the dispute which arose over the working of two ships on Thursday remained unchanged. Representatives of the Stevedores’ Association adhered to the attitude that the terms of the award should be adhered to, pending a sitting of the Disputes’ Committee, and the position will be put to the men tomorrow by their delegates, who attended to-day’s conference. “The employers are prepared, when the Waiana and Kaimiro men turn to, to hold immediately a Disputes’ Committee meeting to deal with the dispute,” said Captain R. S. Lewis, chairman of the Stevedores’ Association after the conference. “Members on the employers’ side will be taken from our management committee, which will mean that the waterslders will be able to meet the local heads of the shipping companies, and there will be three of them. In the meantime we will await the decision of the men when they have the position outlined to them by members of their executive who were present at the conference.” “There will be a meeting of the men at 8 o’clock to-morrow morning and the position as outlined by the employers’ representatives will be put to them,” said Mr R. G. Jones, president of the Waterside Workers’ Union. “We still maintain that the employers have not kept to the agreement, because the men have been down there to-day ready and willing to work on other ships, and they have been refused that right. The employers have not confined the dispute to the two ships, Kaimiro and Waiana. If they like they can make the dispute local to those two ships, and carry on the work of the port. If the incoming ships are not worked, it will be a matter entirely for the employers, because the men will be there ready and willing to do the work.” For the Men to Decide The matter under dispute was for the men to decide, added Mr Jones. The executive had not instructed the men to cease work, but had done everything possible to bring about a satisfactory solution. The employers had stated that they would not discuss the matter further until the two vessels concerned were working, yet on the other hand the employers were refusing to man any other ships, thereby also breaking the agreement. “This is the outcome of discontent that has been brewing for some time,” said Mr Jones. “The men consider they have not been fairly treated in some matters, but there is still no reason why the present trouble should not be confined to the two vessels concerned.” Should the men decide not to return to work after to-morrow’s meeting, and the employers adhere to their attitude, some of the vessels arriving over the week-end will be affected. The port is particularly quiet at present, and the only vessels seriously affected are the two concerned in the dispute. The City of Glasgow and the Mataroa will arrive to-morrow to complete loading for overseas ports, and the Trienza is due on Sunday night with a cargo from Nauru Island.