Wallboard Dispute: Meeting This Week

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 17

Wallboard Dispute: Meeting This Week

Representatives of the Canterbury district council of the New Zealand Federation of Labour and of New Zealand Wallboards, Ltdare to meet tomorrow or Thursday to consider the dispute at the company’s Opawa factory. The chairman will be the Conciliation Commsisioner (Mr S. W. Armstrong). Workers at the factory, who have been on strike since April 28 over a wage claim, remain idle pending the result of the meeting.

Thirty-nine employees of Winstone, Blackburne, Smith Ltd., South Island distributors for New Zealand Wallboards, Ltd., remain under notice of dismissal as from Friday if the dispute is not settled by then.

The Canterbury Master Plasterers’ Association has registered an objection with the Arbitration Court against an anplicatiaon by New Zealand Wallboards. Ltd., for exemption from the Canterbury Plasterers’ Award.

The company wants to pay its wallboard workers, who are classed as plasterers, at an hourly rate of 6s 4Jd. the rate at which it pays similar workers in Auckland and Wellington under a company agreement. The Canterbury plasterers’ award, however, specifies the minimum hourly rate as 6s ll}d. When the company opened itsWoolston factory a few weeks ago. it filed claims with the Arbitration Court for the extension of its company agreement to Opawa and for the consequential setting aside of the Canterbury plasterers' award. It holds that, because of the filing of this claim, it is entitled to pay only the 6s 41d rate in the meantime. The Plasterers’ Union, however, backed by the Federation of Labour, maintains that the company must pay the award rate unless and until the Court rules otherwise.

Yesterday morning the deputy superintendent of the Department of Labour in Christchurch (Mr A. B. Tuck) proposed to the Federation of Labour and the company that a voluntary meeting should be held to discuss the dispute, and that in the meantime the men should return to work, as is usual when such discussions are to be held. The federation. however, refused to ask for work to be resumed, on the grounds that this would amount to giving its assent to what it considered a continued breach of the award. The agreement was therefore made for an earlv meeting without any conditions. "Black” Board?

New Zealand Wallboards. Ltd., had "plenty of board” on hand, the factory manager (Mr M. J. Bridgman) said yesterday, but he did not think it possible to supply this board to Winstone. Blackburne. Smith because, as far as he could ascertain, the board had been declared "black” by the Drivers’ Union. The company could not ship any board from its North Island factories to Winstone’s either, for the samp f \

tried to discover whether the union had, in fact, instructed its members not to handle the board, but the secretary of the Canterbury Drivers' Union. Mr A. S. Roberts, was in Wellington). The vice-president of the Canterbury district council of the Federation of Labour (Mr L. N. Short), said that the federation was firmly convinced the plasterers were "dead right," and there would be no backing down. "Most of the master plasterers pay well above the award rate.” he said. “If we were to allow New Zealand Wallboards, Ltd., men to work for 6s 4Jd an hour, it would result, among other things, in quite unfair competition against the other firms in the plastering trade, which is why the plasterers have registered their objection in the Court.” Mr Short said. “It is as clear as daylight that our case is right. Everyone can see it except the company.

“The company knows it is bound at present to pay the award rates, otherwise it would not be filing a claim for exemption from the award.” ••Futile” Mr Bridgman said the company was “still waiting for someone to see the whole thing was futile.” The main point of the company’s application to the Court was to have its North Island arrangements extended to Christchurch. The exemption claimed from the Canterbury award was merely a logical rider to this. A spokesman for Winstone. Blackbume. Smith, Ltd., said that the 39 workers in the board department were remaining under notice and would be dismissed on Fri. day unless a settlement was reached at New Zealand Wallboards. Ltd. Notice would immediately be revoked when the wallboard factory resumed. The secretary of the Canterbury Master Plasterers' Association (Mr P. J. Taylor) said the main reason for lodging an objection with the Court over New Zealand Wallboards. Ltd., claim for exemption from the Canterbury award was that the association wanted the right to be heard by the Court. It was a formal objection only, made because the association did not know the full reasons why the companv wanted the exemption, Mr Taylor said.

“The present award has been in existence for some considerable time,” Mr Taylor said. “Our association con. siders its clauses must be well known and their meaning obvious to anyone setting up business here in our industry, We consider that the award embraces the wallboard workers as well as other plasterers. “We want to look after the interests of fibrous plaster, ers. who, as far as we know, are under the plasterers' award. There may be good reasons why the company should have total or partial exemption from the award, but we wish to be in a position to know those reasons and, if necessary, give our view* to the Court.”