Shop assistants vote against extension

Press, 11 May 1977, Page 6

Shop assistants vote against extension

There were only three dissenters among more than 400 shop assistants who voted in Christchurch last evening to authorise the executive of the CanterburyWestland Shop Assistants’ Union to call a compulsory stop-work meeting if the Government continues with the extended shopping hours proposal. The timing of the stopwork meeting has been left to the union’s executive, but it is unlikely to be held until after next week, when the executive of th.. New Zealand Shop Employees meets.

When the stop-work meeting is called it will consider a recommendation that a two-day stoppage be held, though other measures were also discussed last evening, including stoppages on lateshopping nights. The union’s secretary (Mr B. Alderdice) told the annual meeting that the Government

caucus had already adopted the Shop Trading Hours Bill, and it had had its first reading in Parliament. It would probably have its second reading when Parliament reconvened soon.

“Over the period of my experience with the union, members have said time and again that Saturday shopping should be resisted. Wages are still considered to be secondary to the Saturday closing issue,” Mr Alderdice said. “Now comes the day of reckoning. The Government says ‘To heck with you, we are going to open the shops.’ It says that it was in its manifesto,” he said.

The extension of trading hours was a political decision, brought about by academic economists and a few big businesses. Everything possible had been achieved through negotiation, and the union now had to make a move.

Mr Alderdice said that if the bill were not killed shop-

ping hours would no longer be considered an industrial matter. They would become non,industrial, which meant that the union could no longer argue over them if the bill went through Parliament. .

“It is being whispered that the bill will proceed, with a few alterations. It is up to us to show that we are fully opposed. Industrial action is our only weapon now,” he said.

The union’s president (Mr L. E. Donald) said that the bill would mean the end of the Monday to Friday week, with 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours, and would introduce the possibility of a 40-hour week Monday to Saturday, with a six-hour day.

The bill was not in the public interest. Many small dairies would be put out of business if supermarkets were allowed to open on Saturdays, he said. Other workers were also likely to have to work irregular hours if the bill was passed.