Aranui factory shut for second day

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 16

Aranui factory shut for second day

(By our industrial reporter) The Dominion Yarns and Fabrics, Ltd, factory at Aranui remained closed yesterday, for the second successive day, in another of the industrial disputes which have caused stoppages in recent months.

It seems probable that the, dispute will be settled today,! but if it is not there is a strong likelihood that the' firm’s parent company, Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd, will be declared black by the Federation of Labour.

Work at the Aranui factory ceased on Saturday evening, in somewhat confused circumstances. Yesterday the men asked to go back on the same conditions as those before the dispute. Mr F. H. Baird, a director of the firm and accountant to Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd, told the men this was not acceptable and they would not be allowed to return to work until they had agreed to additional conditions.

These conditions, according to the workers’ representatives, amount to acceptance, at least in part, of the Hosiery Workers’ Award. They say that Mr Baird has locked them out in an effort to force them to accept an agreement which will depress their j wages and conditions. Asked to comment last' evening, Mr Baird said he' only wanted to clarify the; position before the men went • back. He was hopeful, he[ said, that the men would be able to start work at the be-

s I ginning of today’s afternoon , | shift, at 3.30 pan. 11 If the men are not allowed s to return to work today, on > the same conditions as prei viously, it seems likely that • the Federation of Labour will see the situation as a lock-

out and will impose sanctions on the movement of all goods in and out of Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd, and its subsidiiaries. Representatives of the Canterbury district council of the F.O.L. have already taken part in negotiations with the management of Dominion Yams and Fabrics, Ltd, and have already advised the workers to adopt moderate measures. A ban will mean that the Drivers’ Union, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the Waterside Workers’ Union and the Seamen’s Union, will refuse to handle any goods for shipment to or from the company. In the event of a long , dispute, delivery of prei Christmas stock to retail {firms. The Dominion Yam Workers are at present voluntary members of the Canterbury Woollen Workers’ Union, and the union president (Mr J. W. Crofts) presided over them when they met yesterday morning and agreed to return to work on the previous status quo. The meeting was attended by executive members from every branch of the Woollen Workers’ Union, including Ashburton and Timaru, and they waited in Christchurch, till 7 p.m. to hear that Mr Baird had not agreed, at that stage, to permit the workers to go back today except on additional conditions. They then decided to apply 1 for the ban against Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd, and to '■ meet again this evening. 1 Once again, unionists from Ashburton and Timaru will attend. “It affects us, too,” one of ■ the southerners said last i evening. "If this goes wrong, i we’U have to call special • general meetings on Wed-