Ship Work Carpenters To Stop Work: Tired Of Delay In Wage Issue

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 5

Ship Work Carpenters To Stop Work: Tired Of Delay In Wage Issue

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA). —Wellington shipwork at a stop-work meeting today, decided to cease work from tomorrow until their employers agree to an adjustment of wage rates. Overseas ships in port are likely to be affected if the stoppage is of long duration.

An official of the carpenters’ section of the Waterside Workers’ Union said the shipwork carpenters were paid 3s 7d an hour, whereas waterside workers, often working alongside them, were paid 3s 8d and carpenters in employment on other than ship work were paid at rates varying to as much as 4s 3d to 4s 6d. The last award issued covering shipwork carpeters was dated 1940. In an effort to improve their position the men became a section of the Waterside Workers’ Union and since then their case has been heard by various tribunals. The waterfront Commission itself, in March, 1948, recomended that ship work carpenters be placed unde r the Court’s jurisdiction and a tentative date for the hearing of claims was fixed at Wednesday of next week.

On Tuesday the union was informed that the hearing would not proceed as arranged. The men were tired of delays in the hearing of their claims, an official said. They merely asked that their wages be fixed on the tame principle as applied to waterside workers.

Mr. J. E. Napier, walking delegate of the Wellington Waterside Workers Union, said the matter would 4>e (jiscussed by the union tomorrow.