Management’s View Of Tyre Factory Strike

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 14

Management’s View Of Tyre Factory Strike

Workers at the Christchurch rubber factory of Dunlop N.Z., Ltd., at a stop-work meeting, yesterday discussed the strike by 120 workers-at the Papanui factory of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of New Zealand, Ltd., which begins its third day today. The Dunlop stopwork meeting was one of four allowed by the company each year. A resolution unanimously adopted by the Dunlop workers said the secretary of the Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union (Mr T. Fletcher) was that “they-wholeheartedly supported the efforts of their fellow-workers in the industry at Firestone in their endeavours to correct a grave injustice inflicted on 25 workers.”

The management of Firestone yesterday said that “a recent ‘go-slow’ action at the

factory reduced production which created redundancy in various departments throughout the factory. “The redundancy was created by employees, themselves because of their participating in an . unlawful go-slow, said the management. '“This reduced production to a point where there was no longer sufficient work for employees in certain departments.

“As has been past practice, when production returned to normal, those men who had been laid off were the first to be offered jobs. “On their return, they were re-engaged and their seniority .began from that date. “These men were re-engaged under the same conditions of employment as all other employees who have been reengaged since 1948.”