SUPERFLUOUS LABOUR?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 753, 28 August 1929, Page 10

SUPERFLUOUS LABOUR?

; TWO WINCH-DRIVERS DO ONE MAN’S WORK ; I EFFECT OF AWARD c ; Two men doing one man's work iis a thing that is seen even in ! these days of modern machinery. The American cargo steamer Golden Cross, which is discharging Pacific Slope cargo at Central Wharf, affords ; a case in point. In common with all vessels of the Oceanic and Oriental Line trading to Xew Zealand, the winch-controls of the Golden Cross are operated from raised platforms. | Originally designed as a safety measure for winch-drivers by placing them out of the way of sling loads, these platforms have the added effect of enabling both a port and a star- > board winch to be controlled by one ■ j man with perfect ease. This is always • ; done in the United States of America, J but the New Zealand Waterside | Workers’ Award provides that on all • j ships each winch shall be worked by L ! one man, and so, on each of these ‘ raised platforms are two winch-drivers : doing the work which one could ; | execute much more expeditiously as : a result of one mind controlling both j winches, which fact brings about per- ’ i feet co-ordination of movement. With : this in view, stevedores have offered ’; to pa} r one man to do the work and i j anotoher, at the same wages, to take ; i a holiday, but this was not acceptable to the waterside workers, and so two j men carry on doing the work of one. . | Interviewed this morning, Mr. C. S. ! Morris, president of the Auckland j Waterside Workers’ Union, said that ; | winch-drivers here worked under the [ Xew eZaland Waterside Workers’ Award .and that the union declined to , work two winches with one man when ! | that award contained a provision to ! : the contrary, which provision was made in the interests of the safety of winch-drivers. -