Union President Surprised

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30959, 15 January 1966, Page 1

Union President Surprised

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 14. The president of the Seamen’s Union (Mr W. Martin) said today that when Auckland seamen stopped work yesterday it had been a complete surprise to him.

The seamen stopped work between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. in protest against alleged slowness by the New Zealand Shipowners’ Federation to approve claims for higher wages and more leave. Mr Martin said that he

knew nothing about the incident. As far as he was aware, ship at Wellington and other New Zealand ports had not been affected. “Monthly stop-work meetings were held at Auckland. Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin from 8 a.m. to noon,

but these were normal procedures,” he said. Mr Martin said that protests had been recorded at these meetings about the tardiness of the shipowners to find an agreement. “We have been negotiating since last November and our award expires at the end of this month,” he said. The seamen on New Zea-land-owned ships and their employers will resume negotiations in Wellington on Tuesday.

the two issues have been adjourned three times since they began fn November. At Mount Maunganui, seamen on three Union Company ships loading pine wood products also stopped work between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday “in accordance with a national directive from the union.” Union members on one of the vessels, the Ngatoro, decided not to take it to sea on the 6.30 p.m. tide as scheduled, delaying it 18 ' hours.

Negotiations between the union and the federation on