Printers march into Parliament Buildings

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33050, 18 October 1972, Page 20

Printers march into Parliament Buildings

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 17.

The Minister of Labour (Mr Thomson) today refused to meet about 300 angry printers who walked through the main doors of Parliament Buildings and sat down in the corridor near his office.

Tradesmen, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers from the Government Printing Office’s seven Wellington works marched on Parliament and demanded to see Mr Thomson after they had been told the tradesmen would not get pay rises to restore lost margins.

They stood and sat outside his office in the corridor and chanted, “We want Thomson,” “Thomson out,” ' and “we shall not be moved.” It is understood that Mr Thomson would not leave his office to talk to the men lining the corridor, and sent a message saying he would not meet them till they returned to work. The men will return to work tomorrow and expect Mr Thomson to meet them. Officials of the Public Service Association and the national Printing and Related Trades Union led the march after a three-hour stop-work meeting. The men resolved to stop

work for 24 hours and, on their return refused to handle any Parliamentary printing orders. The printing union has already asked its members not to handle work normally done at the Government Printing Office. Copies of the new Industrial Relations Bill, due to be introduced into the House tomorrow, were expected to be in short supply but Mr Thomson said later that sufficient numbers had already been printed to enable each member to receive a copy. It was not yet clear whether the bill would be introduced tomorrow because the Prime

Minister had not finished the House’s business. The Order Paper for tomorrow’s business will be photo-copied by Legislative Department officers. REJECTION The Cabinet is understood to have rejected the terms of a settlement to restore the tradesmen’s margins that the State Services Commission reached in talks with the P.S.A. and the union. The settlement included a 2.2 per cent rise from the half-yearly survey back-dated to last January, and a 5 per cent increase in advance of settlement of the union’s next award. The union’s award talks are due to resume next month. The 2.2 per cent would make up part of the tradesmen’s lost margins above the office’s unskilled workers, but would not be full compensation. After today’s meeting and march, the Commission, in a new proposal offered some pay adjustments from last March’s survey of outside printing rates, plus the 4.2 per cent cost of living order to apply from October 26 with a provision that this would be adjusted to bring it in line with any increase in the outside rates from the next award. CRITICISM Union officials were critical of Mr Thomson’s refusal to meet the men and said: “It wasn’t good industrial relations.” They said the men were protesting against the Government’s procrastination in failing to get the issue settled. A P.S.A. spokesman said the talks were “now back to square one,” and the situation was “very tense."