WANGANELLA DISPUTE AS THE WORKERS SEE IT

Chronicle (Levin), 9 April 1947, Page 8

WANGANELLA DISPUTE AS THE WORKERS SEE IT

1 NO ATTEMPT TO EXPLOIT SlTUATiON • ' ■- Wellington, April s. Exeeption to various contentions made in a letter sent by the Wanganella repair contractors, "Messrs William Gable and. Company, to the Minister of Labour, Hoa. A. McLagan, is taken by the sub-committee appointe.d by' the interested unions, in a' statement issued this afternoon. Ixi partieular the sub-coinmitte"e objec'ts to the statemeiit by the empioyers that , ' 1 f rankly the only expianation we can coneeive fof the action of the unions fcohceVhed is that,- having got the vessel iiito the' helples? position in which she now lies, and having got the_ doek eom pffetfeiy tied up,-they intend to hold out for the highest figure they can get." "We emphatically deny any suggestion .of an attempt to exploit the situation, " said the statement by the sub--ommittee which consists of the seerecary of the Wellington Boilermakers' (Jnion, 'Mr. P. E. Warner, the secretary of the Wellington Engineers' Unioa Mr. G. G. Caswell, and. the national seeretary of the l^ew Zealand Water.side Workers' Union, Mr. T., Hill. "The Statement that our actions have heen dictated by the situatidn in wliicl: the Wanganel.la has been placed, b without foundation/' the stat.emem s.aid. The unions welcomed the cOmpany T .sthtement tliat' it was eager to hav«» vvoik resuintd but claitned that aftei work ceased on Eebruary • 20, there vvere delays before the empioyers in tei'ested themselves siiffieiently to nieet the unions. It was claimed that wheir nfe'gotiations were ltsumed on March 2t after previous meetings had failed to vield rtn agreement, the "empioyers idopted a completeiy negative attitude and "used Ihe htdicrous argmuent that •iny agreement on Wanganella vvage rates would have immediate repercustioiis 011 wuge levels througi\put tln1 country. "We tried to point out to empioyers that the ship was separate from any general wage issue and that had always .joen and is ihe attitude of the unions," said the sub-coniniittee. " We have oxhausted all avenues in our endeavours to settle this dispute. The empioyers have placed, great stress 011 the elaim for additional pavments on the AVanganella work but we assert we were not adamant On any ligure during the negotiations. The unions eoncerned desire that the Wanganella work be resumed but not on the empioyers-' terms which, in this in^tance, are the mini ' mum award rates. We are of opinion that the statement by the empioyers was motivated by political purposes the endeavour being to force the Government to take w.hatever action it considers necessary to compel the unionists to .resume work on the Wanganella." It was contended that the empioycrt should still negotiate in the dispute and not pass the responsibility to the Government." When the empioyers were prepared to negotiate on the basis ot conciliation, the prospects of olitainina a satisfactory agreement would be niuclx brighter. At no time had the unions refused to rneet the empioyers. The sub-connaittee said it had been unable to obtain any infomation aboul what extra rates the empioyers would obtain from their contract. Howe-ver, the conditions of work such as tliose existing on the Wanganella, had no provisions m eurrent awards. The conditioiis were such that the dispntes committee could properly settle them. the statement concluded.