WATERFRONT HOLD-UP ENDS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 151, 22 March 1939, Page 12

WATERFRONT HOLD-UP ENDS

Men Resume Work Yesterday Afternoon After Addresses By Ministers

NEARLY 1000 ATTEND MEETING

Insufficient Unionists Available To Man All Ships The hold-up on the Wellington waterfront, which began on Thursday and led to the dismissal of 830 men on the ground that they were adopting a “go-slow” policy, ended yesterday. Work was resumed soon after 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Nearly 1000 members of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union packed the Tivoli Theatre yesterday morning at a special stop-work meeting, arranged by the Government in co-operation with the shipping companies. Many were unable to gain even standing room. Admission was by union ticket only, and the Press was excluded. The meeting lasted from 8 a.m. till 11.30 a.m. It was decided that work should be resumed at 1 o’clock under normal conditions and that officials of the New Zealand union should open negotiations with the employers immediately for a new agreement. The previous award expired last July. Speakers were the Minister of Labour, Mr. Webb, the Minister of Marine, Mr. Fraser, the president of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, Mr. J. Flood, and the secretary, Mr. J. Roberts. At a mass meeting in the union ■waiting-room at 12.45 p.m., the men were told that the suspension penalties imposed on those who had been dismissed would be waived by the control board of the Waterside Labour Bureau. The manager of the Wellington Co-operative Waterside Labour Employment Association, Mr. W. Bennett, said later that after the Piako, the Rangitata, the Doric Star, the Karn, and the Foxton, the five vessels first concerned in the holdup, had been manned, 1100 men were required for the rest of the vessels in port. Only about 400 union members were available, however.