WATERSIDERS RESIGN FROM WATERFRONT COMMISSION

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 June 1948, Page 5

WATERSIDERS RESIGN FROM WATERFRONT COMMISSION

Government Action, They Say, Will Immobilise Port Of Auckland

(Press Association) WELLINGTON’, June 25 Two representatives of the New Zealand Watersiders’ Union on the Waterfront Industry Commission (Mr. R. J. O’Donnell and Mr. J. Flood) announced this afternoon they would hand their resignations to the Minister of Labour (Mr. MeLagan). Mr. O’Donnell said tonight that his resignation was now in the hands of the Minister and he expected Mr. Flood’s would be on the way.

Mr. O’Donnell and Mr. Flood in a joint statement, declared that the Government was responsible for the order issued from the office of the Waterfront Commission on Thursday night declaring the freighter Mountpark, at Auckland, a preference ship. This action on the part of the Government, they declared, would immobilise the Auckland waterfront in 10 days.

Announcing his intending resignation this afternoon, Mr. O’Donnell said the two union nominees on the Waterfront Commission refused to agree last evening to an order declaring the Mountpark a preference ship. Neither his signature nor that of the other union nominee (Mr. Mr. Flood) would appear on the order, which he regarded as a Government instruction rather than the considered judgment of the commission, which was established on the basis of independent authority. Simultaneously Mr. Flood and Mr. O'Donnell issued a joint statement in which they said they did not feel they could continue to accept public moneys as members of the commission when they considered that equivalent service was not being given by the commission. They also attacked statements made by the Minister of Labour after their return to the commission this week, following an incident on Monday afternoon when both members left a commission meeting and subsequently absented themselves from duty. They said they feit impelled to reply to the Minister’s statement which accused them of inconsistency. They desired to place the facts before the public. For two weeks before their action in leaving the commission meeting they said practically no work was done by the commission, although they frequently protested against the inactivity. Numbers of important questions had been submitted to the commission by the employers and workers, but in their opinion no real attempt was being made to consider the subjects seriously, so that decisions to which the parties were entitled could be given. “Protests have been made to the Minister by the workers' representatives against the delay," they continued. They said there was a Government representative on the commission who acted as chairman when Judge Dalglish was absent, and in those circumstances no undue delays should have occurred. Yet there

were still no decisions on a number of important questions. Mr. Flood and Mr. O’Donnell alleged that there had even been a reluctance to decide questions when representatives of the workers and employers failed to agree. They believed they were justified in leaving the commission meeting in view of these circumstances, and they did not feel they were morahy entitled to take public moneys when a proper service was not being performed. “We the strongest exception to the Minister’s remarks about us,” Messrs Flood and O’Donnell continued. “They convey an impression to the public that the Minister cracked the whip and that we went crawling back to the commission office.” Messrs Flood and O’Donnell said they both had been members of the Labour Party for many years. The national secretary of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union (Mr. T. Hill) commented: “Messrs' Flood and O’Donnell reported today at this office and emphatically stated they were not parties to the decision of the Government in locking out the Port of Auckland. They stated that the Waterfront Industry Commission has not been permitted to perform its functions and that its policy has been dictated by the Minister of Labour. When the port of Auckland is completely immobilised they have advised this union that responsibility for the deplorable state of affairs will rest not with the commission but with the Government. In view of this situation the national executive of the union will meet on July 5, and the national council, representing all ports, will, meet on the following day.”