150 Workers At Firestone Strike

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31319, 15 March 1967, Page 1

150 Workers At Firestone Strike

More than 150 rubber workers struck yesterday afternoon at the Papanui factory of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of New Zealand. This was after the dismissal of 11 workers at Hie plant on Monday over the three-week-old carbon black dispute.

The secretary of the Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union (Mr T. Fletcher) said that today more than 700 workers would stop work, over the dispute.

The stoppage, expected to begin about 1.30 p.m„ will involve all rubber workers in the Canterbury district. Mr Fletcher said that the decision by Firestone workers to strike was made at a stopwork meeting at 3.30 p.m. yesterday. Workers would not resume before the finish of today’s stop-work meeting of all Canterbury rubber workers.

The strike and the stopwork meeting will be held on the same day as the Federation of Labour’s protest meeting in Latimer square. The carbon black dispute is over penalty rates of pay. The Christchurch workers are seeking the same penalty rates as Wellington workers. In one category this is 3d an hour and in another Id an hour.

Mr Fletcher said that about 180 rubber workers from the factory of Dunlop (New Zealand), Ltd., Lane street, Woolston, would meet in the Druids’ Hall, Portland street, at 8 a.m. today. They would be addressed by the president of the Wellington Rubber Workers’ Union (Mr B. M. Seddon).

The three factories specifically involved in the carbon black dispute are Dunlop, Firestone, and the Empire

Rubber Mills, Ltd, of Woolston. The stop-work meeting for all rubber workers planned for this afternoon is expected to involve all 12 Christ- • church branches of the Rub--1 ber Workers’ Union.