150 Dismissed At West Arm

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30841, 28 August 1965, Page 1

150 Dismissed At West Arm

More than 150 workers employed on the West Arm access tunnel of the £l4m Manapouri power project were dismissed yesterday morning by the management of the Morrison-Downer-Fletcher joint venture, said the president of the New Zealand Workers’ Union job committee at the project (Mr R. Pilling) early last evening.

The men, belonging to at least seven unions, were dismissed for refusing to work after differences on redundancy pay, he said.

The 150 workers, including tunnellers, labourers, carpenters, engineers, boilermakers, and electricians, stopped work at midnight on Thursday. Yesterday morning, when a delegation representing all workers on the site went to meet the management, it was told that if the men did not start work at 8 a.m. they would be dismissed. The men refused to start work, and were dismissed.

Mr Pilling said that an aircraft at 9.30 a.m. brought money in to pay off the dismissed men, but they refused to accept their pay. The superintendent of the Department of Labour in Invercargill (Mr J. Michaels) was flown into West Arm yesterday to investigate the dispute over redundancy pay, said Mr Pilling. A full meeting of the dismissed workers was scheduled to meet Mr Michaels at 7 p.m. to discuss the issue. The outcome would decide the men’s future action.

Asked what the specific issue of the dispute was, Mr Pilling said:

“The dispute is over redundancy pay when it should be paid and what amount should be paid,” he I said. “The company has a

view and we have another view.” No statements on the outcome of last evening’s meeting was available. A message received in Christchurch at 10 p.m. said that Mr Pilling had gone to bed after a hard day, and did not want to be disturbed.