Beer talks likely: wine on tap

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32666, 23 July 1971, Page 14

Beer talks likely: wine on tap

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 22. Negotiations are to resume tomorrow in Wellin, ton on the breweries wage dispute.

The resumption of talks was proposed today by the president of the Wellington Trades Council (Mr T. M. Hill) in a meeting with the chairman of New Zealand Breweries (Sir Clifford Plimmer).

The latest move in the brewery dispute in Auckland is the supply of wine on tap in hotels.

A barrel of red wine was installed at the bar of the Star Hotel in Auckland tonight in a trial run for the beginning of sales in the public bar tomorrow. Many other Auckland hotels are reported to be pre-

paring to introduce wine on tap tomorrow, and it seems likely that most hotels will provide wine by the glass for week-end drinkers.

There are also plans to pipe white wine through beer hoses from small cellar tanks.

The management of the Star Hotel said tonight that wine bridged the gap between beer and spirits. Nearly all Auckland hotels are out of draught beer and very low on bottles and cans.

Wine sales elsewhere have not increased greatly because of the beer shortage. A wholesale wine and spirit merchant said today that the trade was generally depressed by the lack of beer. MORE STAFF GO The number of bar staff laid off at Auckland hotels is expected to exceed 200 tomorrow, and more will probably be laid off during the week-end and early next week if a settlement is not reached. The men from Dominion Breweries and the New Zea-

land Breweries will meet tomorrow to discuss the dispute. Hotel proprietors in Wellington have been advised by the Hotel Association that they may have,to lay off staff should the Wellington beer supply continue to dry up. Auckland brewery workers say they are holding fast to their claim for a 18.8 per cent wage rise, and the managements of the two breweries are sticking to their 9.5 per cent offer.