451 Tasman Men Face Dismissal

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31993, 21 May 1969, Page 1

451 Tasman Men Face Dismissal

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 20. The Tasman Pulp and Paper Company, Ltd, has told 451 workers in its plant at Kawerau that they will be dismissed if they do not report for work on Saturday.

The men, members of the Northern Federation of Pulp ami Paper Workers, carried a resolution five weeks ago saying that they would refuse to work every fifth Saturday. The first such Saturday will fall this week.

The men, less than a quarter of Tasman’s labour force, took the action when their union and the company could not renegotiate a labour

agreement which expired a year ago.

The company said in a statement tonight: “The Northern Federation of Pulp and Paper workers passed a resolution five weeks ago that overtime would be banned, except .on replacement, and that every fifth Saturday, one of these being next Saturday, would not be worked. “As the union has implemented the overtime ban and indicated its intention to refuse to work on Saturday the company has advised the 451 members of the union by letter that if the resolution of the federation results in the closing of the company’s operations on Saturday the plant will remain closed after that date and their services will no longer be required. “The letter also advises each member that the company met their representatives on May 16 and again tried to negotiate a settlement of the labour agreement. “Unfortunately, a settlement did not eventuate. Neither would their representative agree to the company’s repeated suggestion that the parties refer outstanding issues to a mutually acceptable independent umpire on the basis that normal work would continue meanwhile.”