Postponement By Firemen

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 18

Postponement By Firemen

The Christchurch Airport crash fire officers’ dispute was postponed from midnight last night until 9.45 pjn. today.

The regional superintendent of the Department of Civil Aviation (Mr L. E. Duke) said the postponement was the result of negotiations in Wellington yesterday. The negotiations were among representatives of the department, the State Services Commission and the head office of the Public Ser-

vic* Association. The object of the postponement was to enable further negotiations among them to be held in Wellington today, he said.

The crash fire officers now plan to do day duties only from 9.45 pm. today. They claim that their meal allowances and transport allowances are being cut by Government economy measures. The secretary-organiser of the Canterbury branch of the P.S.A. (Mr J. M. McKenzie) said that the postponement was the result of a decision of the Bremen which they conveyed to the PSA. general secretary (Mr D. P. Long) in Wellington. The men wanted to make sure that they would not be charged with being unreasonable, said Mr MeKenzie. They did not want to be accused of taking some sort of industrial action while negotiations were being held. “It is grossly unfair to in-

dicate that this postponement came from Wellington. The P.SA. head-office has made it quite clear that it wants these decisions to be made by the men themselves,” he said.

The Christchurch Airport manager (Mr AIR. Jamieson) said that he did not expect any problems. Provided overseas and internal flights ran on schedule the ban on out-of-hours work should not affect services at all.

Mr Duke said that if flights were extended beyond 9.45 pjn. problems might arise. It depended on the weather.