Bakery defies picketers

Press, 19 November 1977, Page 3

Bakery defies picketers

PA Auckland Pacific Continental Bakery, Ltd, the only big Auckland bakery still producing bread, yesterday filed an injunction in the Supreme Court seeking! to ensure that supplies to the bakery are not disrupted by! union bans. The company has continued! to bake in spite of its flour! supplies being cut off, and striking bakery workers picketing the plant at every shift. The 250 bakery workers in Auckland originally went on strike when the Industrial! Commission declined to ap-| prove a clause in the national award after objections from 11 bakeries. The clause would have written into the award the recognised bakery workers’ week-end of 9 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday, and restrict the use of ovens during the week-end so that workers’ jobs would be protected from casual labour. The Auckland Trades Council has ordered a general union “blacking” of all bak-! eries which do not comply with the strike. A date for the injunction hearing has not yet been set, but it is expected to be heard on either Monday or Tuesday. Mr P. S. Harrop, secretary of the Auckland Master! Bakers’ Association, said! that the dispute centred onj the right of a baker to bake when he wanted. “A union’s right does not extend to telling an employer when he can or cannot bake, just as an employer cannot] tell an employee when he cani or cannot strike,” said Mr Harrop.