Petrol Strike Decision At Meeting Today

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32323, 15 June 1970, Page 1

Petrol Strike Decision At Meeting Today

Canterbury petrol and oil-tanker drivers will decide at a meeting this morning whether they will return to work.

“I think there is every 'possibility of a return to work,” the assessor who represented Christchurch tanker drivers at conciliation in Wellington (Mr P. R. Liggett) said last evening.

“Everyone has got the message that we mean business for once—l think that this is the first time in living history that this has happened down here. The chaps are prettyupset about it...” The employers had offered weekly wage increases, but this was conditional on drivers accepting award rates only. Some drivers were being paid above the present award rates, and under: the new scheme would lose money, Mr Liggett said. , The present basic rate for: the driver of an articulated; tanker, without overtime, was

$39.50 gross a week. A man doing the same job in! Britain was entiled to a basic) $46.80 a week, and in Australia. the rate was $69.68 a week. “A STOPPAGE" j Asked if he thought the, drivers’ strike action bad lost; ) them public sympathy, Mr ■ Liggett said that when people iread the facts of the dispute! I in the newspapers—“and they were fairly well recorded. I think they think it is fair; enough." He said it was not a “strike” but a "stoppage”—l would call it a protest stoppage myself.”

Asked if the union, having i been warned that the strike was illegal, was not risking deregistration, Mr Liggett I said he could not really say. “The boys were that wild (about the wage offer) that when we had the stop-work meeting they just went mad about it, and I don't blame them.” Mr Liggett said. “But I think if we go on over Tuesday w-e will run into problems, especially with essential users like the Transport Board and the glassworks.”

SOME DELIVERIES i Emergency deliveries had i already been made. One com- < pany’s drivers serviced three glasshouses on Saturday, and i fuel was taken to a semi-i invalid woman at Redcliffs | who had no other form of i heating. < Service stations open in < Christchurch yesterday said i the rush for petrol seemed to have tailed off since the i panic buying on Friday. One < reported that most motorists ' calling in already had fairly i full tanks, and were buying < only a gallon or two to keep i them topped up. 1 Although some stations are 1 out of petrol, particularly premium grade, there was i still no difficulty buying i petrol in Christchurch yester- I day. One garage proprietor i said many stations had suffi-1 cient stock to keep going < until Tuesday or. in a few::

. cases, even later in the 11 week. : A tafxi company reported ■ services were running as nori inal, and that plenty of preiiniuin petrol w-as available at service stations outside the .middle of the city. The secretary of the Can.!terbury Drivers’ Union (Mr ,N. L. Dunnill) said last ); evening he bad heard noth- ; ing more about the strike ■ from the Minister of Labour ! (Mr Marshall), who on Friday sent him a telegram calling on the union to instruct ! the drivers to return to work immediately. NEW DATE

> The Conciliation Commis- : sioner (Mr J. D. Gibb) said ; last evening he had arranged 1 for the resumption of the adjourned conciliation hearing to be on June 25 .instead of July 7 as prejviously arranged, but he be- * lieved that this date did not : suit the drivers’ union. Mr Liggett said that June 1 25 would not be suitable for ’ two of the assessors, who had " previous engagements. ’ Service stations in Ashbur- ' ton still have stocks of petrol, even those which re-

mained open all week-end, and they expect to be able to continue to supply customers. One service station closed at noon on Saturday to conserve its supplies The proprietor said that demand was unusually heavy, nearly double normal sales, on Friday evening and Saturday : morning. Timaru service stations began rationing petrol yesterday. A number of retailers went “dry" after panic buying on Friday and the stocks of some other week-end traders, particularly premiumgrade, are almost exhausted, the Press Association reports One large Timaru petrol seller said that sales were steady throughout Saturday but nothing like the pressure on Friday which, he said, was the heaviest he had experienced “since the Suez Canal scare.”