DUNNAGE DISPUTE STILL UNSETTLED

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 August 1947, Page 6

DUNNAGE DISPUTE STILL UNSETTLED

AUCKLAND WATERFRONT SAILING OF IHE MATUA MAY BE DELAYED. (P.A.) Auckland, Aug. 1. The departure time'from_ Auckland lor Suva tomorrow of the Union Co.'s passenger motor-ship Matua is uncertain, following a ruling by the Marine Department that one hatch was incompletely stowed. The hatch was one from which waterside workers were dismissed Carlier in the week for refusing to lay dunnage, and application was made to the department by the crew, which claimed that the aviation spirit already loaded should be more firmiy secured.

A company official slated that the hatch had been declared ’ black” by the waterside workers, who had refused to load 35 tons of cement in the hold to secure tne remainder of the cargo. Decision on the sailing time, tentatively set down for noon tomorrow, will be reached by tomorrowmorning. More than 100 passengers are waiting to leave by the Matua. An order has been lodged for labour, and the sailing will be dependent on the response. At present No. 4 liptcli is carrying only about half the cargo avaiable for it, and another hatch is waiting for 150 tons of refrigerated cargo. If sufficient cargo to secure the shipment in No. 4 hatch, can be loaded tomorrow morning it is likely that the vessel will be despatched.

Two ships were completely idle today. They were the Chanda, in which loading was stopped on Wednesday to avoid straining the str’.r - ture after the waterside workers were dismissed from the central hatch, and the trans-Pacific freighter Waitemata, which arrived late in the morning from Vancouver, via Papeete and Rarotonga. The Waitemata was not covered by the labour preference. The only ships covered by this provision were five vessels from which labour had been dismissed in the -dunnage dispute—the Waiwera, Largs Bay, Rangitiki, Chanda and Matua. When waterside workers failed to lift discs for employment in five preference ships this morning, they were placed by the Waterfront Industry Commission on a three-day penalty. They brought the total number of unionists penalised to 890. The dispute was discussed at a conference at Parliament Buildings in Wellington today, and although high hopes were held at Auckland that the dispute was nearing its end, no settlement was subsequently announced. The dispute began on July 25, when waterside workers, supporting claims by the ships’ carpenters section of the union for increase in pay of 6d an hour, refused to lay dunnage in the holds.