Engineers’ claim for l0p.c. meets reaction

Press, 19 October 1977, Page 12

Engineers’ claim for l0p.c. meets reaction

PA Auckland The largest union branch in the country’, the Auckland Engineers’ Union on Monday launched a new wave of demands for wage increases about 10 per cent above the recently negotiated 7.5 per cent award increase.

In a meeting at the Auckland Employers’ Association offices, officials of the union revealed the results of a survey of 126 companies which they said established a case for a further 10 per cent rise in its members’ wage rates.

The effect of the new demands was instantaneous, as employers gathered for the annual dinner of the Auckland Employers’ Association, at which the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) spoke last evening. Speaking at the annual meeting in the afternoon, the executive director of the Employers’ Federation (Mr J. W. Rowe) called for employer unity to counter the surge in wage demands.

“The time has come for us to tell the Government the omens are that this week the industrial machine is about to shoot through,” he said.

The federation, said Mr Rowe, had refrained from criticising free wage bargaining too early because it had not wanted to embitter the industrial scene. “The industrial relations scene is now as exacerbated as it can be. We can do no more harm by talking than by keeping quiet. “The good will of the Federation of Labour is all right, but its ability to hold the line with wage bargaining is in question.” Both the new demands of the Engineers’ Union and the Auckland Storemen and Packers Union claims for 13.8 per cent increases were serious developments, the meeting was told.

The president of the Auckland Employers’ Association (Mr J. K. Dobson) said: “I believe we have got to determine some guidelines that we can sit down and talk to the F.O.L. and the unions about.” The deputy director of the association, Mr D. E. Stewart, said the new wage claims being made by the engineers were in addition to the 7.5 per cent wage rise and the increases in allowances negotiated in the Metal Trades Award last month. “The Engineers’ Union is seeking increases in the Auckland province paid rate ranging as high as 30c on hour above the existing paid rates,” said Mr Stewart. “The basis of this claim is that the union has con-

ducted a survey of 126 com- ’ panies which, they allege, established a paid rate of $3.08 an hour as a starting , rate for unindentured tradesmen.

“The employers refute that the survey is accurately based, and they contend that • the great majority of the . wage rates for unindentured tradesmen in the Auckland area is in the range of $2.80 to $2.84 an hour,” said Mr Stewart. “True, some rates exist in the $2.805, $2.90s and even as high as $3 an hour, but at ’ the meeting today with the Engineers’ Union, the employers representatives rejected the union’s call for increases of the magnitude sought.”