Hotel Workers’ Dispute

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 1

Hotel Workers’ Dispute

Proposed changes in barmen’s working hours and the proportion of part-time workers led to a breakdown of conciliation proceedings between the Hotel Workers’ Federation and licensed trade employers last week.

Auckland barmen held a stop-work meeting yesterday and Wellington barmen will meet in working hours tomorrow to discuss the implications of the failure to reach agreement. The Otago union will meet tomorrow night. The meeting of 500 in Auckland unanimously decided to consider taking action to stop the flow of Australian labour into New Zealand hotels if no satisfactory agreement was ob-

tained at the conciliation council meeting next week, South Canterbury members of the union will meet this evening, outside working hours, but no meeting has been planned for Christchurch because conciliation council proceedings will be resumed in Wellington next Monday, If the union was successful at the proceedings then there would not be a need for any stop-work meeting in Christ church, Mr L. N. Short, secretary of the Canterbury union said last evening. If the employers persisted in their claims, then a stop-work meetIng would be called. In the meantime it was a little previous to talk of a nation-wide strike, Mr Short said. Skeleton Staffs The Press Association reported from Auckland yesterday that skeleton staffs and

managers acting as barmen and porters kept hotels functioning with little inconveni* ence to guests while the union held its two-hour stop-work meeting. Most hotels had to close at least one bar, but kept the public bars open. About 700 Wellington barmen are expected to attend the meeting tomorrow. “The employers wanted to turn the clock back 25 years," said the secretary of the Wellington branch of the union (Mr T. J. Duffy). The employers were trying to force on the workers changes to the working hours, he said. The workers also objected to a new proposed clause to change the proportion of part-time workers. The changes being proposed were an attempt to get the award “lined up” for employers for the change to extended licensing hours, Mr Duffy said.