“Dominion” To Hire New Staff

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31906, 6 February 1969, Page 1

“Dominion” To Hire New Staff

New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 5.

In the dispute between the Wellington Publishing Company and the Wellington Printing Trades Union, the company has decided to employ new staff to help print the “Dominion.” Seven senior foremen printing staff have decided to stop work from tomorrow night.

The managing director of the company (Mr J. A. Burnet) said the company would now take advantage of offers from other people who were prepared to do the work.

Mr Burnet said he apprep dated that the printing fore-1 I I men had been placed in a very; '' difficult position. r A spokesman for the group , i said that they were not in agreement with the action that the company’s printers had taken, but that they had 1j to work with the men after '• the dispute was settled. s They had therefore decided s to stop work tomorrow night 8 after they had finished work- ■ ing on Friday"s issue of the s “Dominion.” > The men are members of - the Wellington Printing - Trades Union, but as senior :. staff, they do not have any 1 voting rights and cannot attend union chapel meetings. s This prevented them from . having any part in the original action of the company’s !' printers in deciding not to . handle “Sunday Times” work. The men have the right to attend a full union meeting 5 of all Wellington printers, and 1 pay a full union subscription. 5 but do not pay the additional ' subscription of the chapel of s the company. e e UNION SUPPORTED | The national executive of New Zealand Printing and! T Related Trades Union has exits full accord with I the action of its Wellington; - branch in its handling of the ki dispute. » The national executive 1 pledged its full backing to 1 y the workers involved, and i, called on all branches and 1 members to render full i assistance. s At its meeting today the naj tional executive also accused i the president of the News- . paper Proprietors’ Association (Mr H. N. Blundell) of “misleading the public” about the r dispute. The national president of the union, Mr W. H. Clement, who is also the secretary of the Wellington union, said the claim that industrial strife in the United States and United . Kingdom had led to the closJ ing of newspapers was incorrect. Their closing was caused principally by takeovers and mergers. > Support for the printers has • also come from printers employed in the Government > Printing Office, the Public! > Service Association, the! r National Conference of Freez- ; ing Workers, and the Federa-I tion of Labour.

The North Island Freezing; Workers’ Federation has also assured the printers of fin-j ancial help. PRINTERS’ CLAIMS In a pamphlet issued by] the Wellington Printing! Trades Union today the union claimed that in other sections of industry, workers were paid more than 829 for working on their day off at trebleI time rates.

, “This is nearly $5 more than we should be getting,” the pamphlet said.

It is also claimed that more than 60 persons were dismissed, of whom some were printers who had never worked the “Sunday Times” shift and some were off work at the time.

It also quotes the Department of Statistics calculation that the purchasing power of the New Zealand dollar since May, 1965, had decreased by 16.9 per cent. The rate for “Sunday Times” work was fixed at $2O in 1965 and its purchasing power was now 817.10. There-

| fore, to restore the purchasing power of the $2O, it ishould be increased to $23.38, the leaflet argues. The further movement of $1.22 to make a total of j $24.60, was described as a “margin for skill.” | The leaflet also claims that Ithe Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) was misinformed about the length of the negotiations.

These were opened in early December, when the chapel's case for an increase and the amount was put forward, the leaflet says. Referring to the comment by Mr Burnet that the superannuation scheme which superseded a bonus scheme cost the company more than the latter, the leaflet claimed that those on the superannuation scheme were losing at least half the amount they would have received under the bonus scheme.

The management of the company and the Wellington Trades Council are to meet tomorrow afternoon to have further discussions on the dispute.