Strikes shut banks in two cities

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33974, 15 October 1975, Page 1

Strikes shut banks in two cities

Trading banks in New Plymouth and Wanganui closed yesterday when bank officers voted to strike for a day in protest against the breakdown in award conciliation talks.

In Dunedin, bank officers at a stop-work meeting expressed whole - hearted support for the one-day strike by Christchurch bank employees last Friday.

No direct call for a strike was made, although many union members expressed support for more direct action throughout the country.

Bank officers in Invercargill will hold a stop-work meeting today, and a stopwork meeting will be held in Auckland tomorrow. Bank workers in Wellington will meet on Tuesday. Union sources in Christ-

church allege that employees of an Auckland bank have been intimidated by management.

The sources say that the staff was told not to attend the stop-work meeting, or members would face diminished promotion prospects.

It was hinted that the threat was made at the National Bank, but its management denied all knowledge of the intimidation, and in a telephone interview a spokesman said, “We assure you that no action of this kind has been taken at this branch.”

However, clerical staff said they knew of warnings, but no-one was able to say where they originated.

Officers of the union in Christchurch are confident that no further action will be taken by local bank employees before October 24, when the award talks will be resumed. Staff of the Bank of New South Wales who went on strike on Friday will not be paid for that day. It is thought that all other banks will follow this line of action.

Union members were told that they were likely to lose a day’s wages at the stopwork meeting on Friday. About 180 trading bank officers met in New Plymouth at 9 a.m. yesterday, and at 10.30 a.m., half an hour after banks were to open, decided not to return to work for the day, the Press Association reports.

As the result of a secret ballot was announced a loud cheer rose from the hall where the meeting was held. The ballot result was 85 for a one-day strike, and 67 against.

Several girls who left soon after said they were returning to work. The chairman of the Taranaki branch of the Bank Officers’ Union (Mr C. D. Grant) said members could return to work if they felt they should, but most would not return to work until today. In Wanganui, Mr A. J. Burkett, a spokesman for the local branch of the Bank Officers’ Union, said there had been a 75 per cent majority for the one-day strike.