Record number of stoppages

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32639, 22 June 1971, Page 2

Record number of stoppages

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 21.

Last year’s total of industrial stoppages was the highest recorded, according to the Labour and Employment Gazette.

The number of stoppages during 1970 was 323, almost double the previous highest total, in 1969.

However, the total of working days lost, 277,348, ran second to the record, 1,157,390 in 1951, which was caused by the prolonged waterfront strike and sympathetic strikes in coal mining, shipping, freezing and other industries.

Apart from the abnormal estimated loss of wages of more than s6m in 1951, last year’s loss of $2,425,120 was nearly twice as high as the previous record—sl,3B4,3so in 1969:

The four worst years, in terms of working days lost, since 1921 were 1951, 1970, 1950 (271,475) and 1949 (218,172). Last year’s stoppages were frequent but of short duration. The average number of days lost was only 2.52 per worker. This is the lowest since 1964, and has been exceded in 30 of the last 50 years. The unusually large number of short protest stoppages suggested increased dissatisfaction over rising prices and alleged slow progress in wage negotiations. Wages issues showed a rising trend between the first and last quarters of 1970 and

accounted for 57.1 per cent of all work stoppages. The comparable figure for 1969 was 45.6 per cent. Conditions of work accounted for 32.2 per cent of stoppages, com-

pared with 33.1 per cent the previous year, but the number of cases more than doubled, for a total of 117, compared with 56 in 1969. The incidence of work stoppages over dismissals dropped from 13 per cent in 1969 to 7.1 per cent in 1970. Two industries meat freezing and licensed hotels —accounted for 6f4 per cent of all working days lost through stoppages last year. In the freezing industry 109,633 days were lost and in the hotels 60,620. Five other industries—ship-

ping services, waterfront, general engineering, building and construction, and passenger transport services—lost totals of more than 5000 working days. Eight industries accounted for two-thirds of the 323 stoppages during 1970. They were freezing (91), waterfront (31), building and construction (25), general engineering (23), rubber manufacture (13), abbatoirs (13), shipping services (10), and chemical fertilisers (9).