Disputes threaten meat, rubber

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 1

Disputes threaten meat, rubber

Shipping is being delayed, freezing works may close, a big ice-cream export order is threatened and rubber production may be cut as a result of industrial action around the country.

An eight-hour work ban by tug officers is causing shipping delays at Lyttelton and Auckland and the local executive of the Meat Workers’ Union has decided to support a national assessors’ decision not to sign the award until a travel allowance question has been settled. However, there were signs yesterday that talks between rubber workers’ representatives and employers in Canterbury would resume this week, after the rejection last Friday by the workers of offers made by the employers. In Auckland, a $200,000 shipment of cakes <and ice cream for Saudi Arabia is among the likely casualties of a head-on confrontation between the General Foods Corporation and a section of staff at its Mount Wellington factory. The secretary of the Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast branch of the Meat Workers’ Union (Mr Wes Cameron) said last evening that meetings would be held at the nine freezing works in the branch’s area from next Tuesday. The men would be told of the progress in their national award talks, which broke down last week and would then endorse or oppose the national executive’s policy, he said. The conciliation talks, which started in Dunedin in August and were resumed in September and again last week, broke down when the employers, the Freezing Companies Association, refused to concede a claim by the union for a $2-a-day travelling allowance for distances of more than 2km. Travelling time has been a top priority in the claims put forward by the union since the talks began. The 1976-77 meat export season opened officially in the country yesterday with killing at Smithfield (Timaru), Belfast (Canterbury), and Te Moana (Hawke’s Bay). The tugmasters’ ban on work between midnight and 8 a.m. is proving costly to shippers because gangs of watersiders have to wait for up to three hours before a ship berths and can be worked. On Saturday the Rosario Maru anchored off the Lyttelton heads at 5.40 a.m. but was not tied up until 10.30 a.m. Watersiders had

been waiting since 7 a.m. Two other ships have been held up as well. In Auckland, attempts to get conciliation started between the two parties in the ban appear to be stalemated. On Friday the Harbour Board Employers Association sent a letter to Captain J. W. Dickinson, secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, who is handling the dispute for the tugmasters and dredge officers. A spokesman for the association said the letter set out steps it wanted for a return to conciliation, but it had now heard from the guild and “the ball is in their court.” However Captain Dickinson said he told the association by phone on Thursday of the guild’s requirements before going into conciliation. An offer by rubber employers of an over-all wage increase of 4.5 per cent was rejected by a meeting of rubber workers on Friday. The union’s secretary (Mr Leon Morel) said in Christchurch yesterday that “exploratory discussions” were held over the week-end and yesterday with a view to settlement. He said it appeared that the week’s grace given by the union before resuming a four-day week on October 26 might -hasten a settlement. He also said that the settlement reached yesterday by the Northern Rubber Workers’ Union and their employers could influence talks in Christchurch. General Foods has dismissed 29 freezer hands while another dozen are on strike, and 70 women from the ice-cream department have been suspended. No frozen products are likely to leave the plant while the dispute continues and by the end of this week stocks will be depleted in all General Foods outlets north of Gisborne and Taupo. Only hospital and emergency deliveries are being maintained. The trouble arose last week, an Auckland Employers’ Association spokesman said, when about 40 freezer hands walked off the job in protest at the company’s refusal to give ground on a claim for a manning scale. Further talks on the suggested manning scale were planned, the spokesman said, and by going on strike the freezer hands breached a special disputes agreement reached between the company and the Fed-

eration of Labour in March. The vice-president of the Auckland Trades Council, Mr Bill Andersen, said the council had Deen called in to handle the dispute and was insisting on the reinstatement of dismissed men. The corporation had forced the confrontation for the sake of three or four extra men that would be required for a manning scale, he said. “And I believe they have have been motivated by their desire to oust that particular section of workers,” said Mr Andersen. The General Foods spokesman said enough men had been employed in the freezing chamber at the time of the strike. “We’ve had a history of difficult problems with this group. We do not have these kind of difficulties with the other unions on the site. We are always able to sit down and talk to the drivers or the engineers.” The chances are' diminishing that a $200,000 order of ice cream and :akes will leave new Zealand in time to fulfil a contract with Saudi Arabian interests. The contract was won after three trips to Saudi Arabia by the company’s export manager.