West Arm Men To Vote Tonight On Resumption

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30534, 1 September 1964, Page 1

West Arm Men To Vote Tonight On Resumption

The 140 striking workers at West Arm, Manapouri, would probably return to work after a special meeting tonight, unless someone went in and upset them, said the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) in a telephone interview yesterday.

The chairman of the job committee at West Arm (Mr R. Pilling) also said that he thought there would be a settlement after tonight’s meeting. Mr Skinner said that if the West Arm men did not resume work, they were “out on a limb on their own.”

“The F.O.L. cannot negotiate for them any. longer,” he said. “We have negotiated an agreement. Once we have negotiated an agreement, we are bound to honour it.” The workers who went on strike on Friday, said Mr Skinner, were converging on West Arm by boat and aircraft, for tonight’s special meeting.

A meeting of the West Arm men at the camp yesterday, said Mr Skinner, was adjourned till tonight because there were insufficient workers present. A very good increase of lOd an hour had been negotiated by the Federation of Labour for the West Arm workers, said Mr Skinner. The general labourers had a new award with a 3d an hour in-

crease, and this would mean that labourers would receive a Is Id an hour increase and other workers lOd an hour increase.

The lOd an hour increase, he said, included the 6 per cent general wage order increase.

The men on the job at West Arm and the contractors, said Mr. Skinner, were at present negotiating a bonus system for tunnellers. Asked what had caused the repeated strikes at West Arm and the widespread dissention on the job, Mr Skinner said: “The workers at West Arm are being used by some of the trade union movement who are outside the Federation of Labour to try to get jurisdiction on the job. “Unfortunately the workers have been used by certain people outside the Federation of Labour for their own ends.” Mr Pilling said that a “call out” had gone out for all the men away from the site to return for tonight’s meeting. “1 think there will be a settlement,” said Mr Pilling. “We do not know the basis of it.” Mr Pilling said the job committee was not making

any statements to the newspapers till after tonight’s meeting. “The question of a bonus for the men, he said, was something that would be brought, up at tonight’s meeting. More than 100. men would attend the meeting. The current strike began on Friday, 24 hours after the men had ?nded a 13-day strike for union representation and a 50 per cent wage rise.

At a meeting on Friday the workers decided unanimously to continue on strike until their original demands for a 50 per cent increase and representation by the New Zealand Workers’ Union had been met.’

The men claimed the terms of settlement under which they agreed to work were that they had been granted official coverage by the Workers’ Union and would receive lOd an hour increases, not including the recent 6 per cent general wage order increase.

After returning to work the men were told that the 6 per cent was included in the lOd an hour and. the question of representation was not solved to their satisfaction.