Hotel Talks Still Sought

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32358, 25 July 1970, Page 1

Hotel Talks Still Sought

(By Our Industrial Reporter)

Although New Zealand's hotel • workers have rejected the employers’ latest offer and are continuing their weekly strikes, they still wish to hold negotiations with the employers in Wellington next Wednesday.

The employers, however, will decide over the week-end whether they are prepared to do this while the workers are still striking.

In Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland the hotel workers decided to continue striking every Friday and l Saturday, and in Dunedin they decided to extend their' weekly strike from Friday to : include Saturday. In a telephone call from! Wellington last evening, the| chief executive officer of the; Hotel Association of New Zea-! land (Mr J. J. Williams) told; "The Press” he was surprised; the workers had rejected what the employers considered to be a most generous offer as a starting point for negotiations. “We feel, in view of the decision, that the workers are not being told the full facts of the offer by their representatives," Mr Williams said. In support of this suspicion, Mr Williams said, quite correctly, that three requests made by the workers’ meeting in Auckland yesterday had all been conceded in the employers' offer.

However, reporters at the Christchurch meeting heard the Canterbury secretary (Mr L. N. Short) read out every detail of the offer, and the Otago secretary (Mr D. C. McDonald) said he had done the same and Mr Williams was welcome to check the minutes. Mr McDonald said he had made it clear to his members that the employers’ offer was a minimum one and the increase would be back-dated from next Wednesday no matter how long it might take to complete award formalities. In Christchurch, Mr Short told his members: “We can stay out Friday and Saturday

month after month, but eventually we have got to meet them.”

He said that the results of any negotiations in Wellington next week would be referred back to the members for their decision, and made it obvious that he favoured opening negotiations. At one stage, however, Mr Short was asked whose side he was on, and other speakers jin favour of negotiation were jbooed and slow-clapped. Secret Ballot I The chairman of the meetling, Mr G. G. Walker (who |is South Island secretary of | the Brewery Workers' Union and secretary of the Canterbury Trades Council) said there was “nothing more ost-rich-like than saying you won’t talk until you get what you want. You’ve got to negotiate. You do not give anything away by agreeing to talk on Wednesday.” But when it came to the secret ballot, 322 to 202 voted against returning to normal duties pending further negotiations. It is most unusual, and probably unprecedented, for workers to be told before conciliation that negotiations for their wage increase would start at some 15 per cent. And by agreeing to pay whatever was finally negotiated from next Wednesday, the employers had removed any grounds for suspicion that delaying tactics might be used to postpone the actual payment of the increases. Rolling Strikes It is difficult to see what more the workers could expect before full negotiations commence, and it would not be surprising if the employers declined to consider further talks while the rolling strikes continue. The position is complicated, however, by the distinct possibility that the New Zealand Brewery Workers’ Union may soon support the hotel workers by some form of direct action.

The minimum wage increases offered by the Hotel Association of New Zealand range from 15 per cent to about 16.5 per cent and are as follows.— Male workers, and females on equal pay (kitchen workers and bar staff), S 6 a week if living out, $4.60 if living in. All other female workers (waitresses and housemaids), $4 and $2.60. Casual and part-time bar and kitchen staff, 15c an hour. All other casual female staff, 10c an hour. A further 10 per cent on these rates for week-end work as part of a 40-hour week. As sought by the workers, the term of the award is to be 12 months.