Timber men warn of more strikes

Press, 27 January 1978, Page 3

Timber men warn of more strikes

’A Wellington | A fresh outbreak of trikes is imminent over the smissal of 130 Waipa State iwmill workers, the .dusial Court heard yesterday.

Mr B. Montgomery, a nember of the Combined Council of Delegates, which has been a leader of the; rebel timber workers in the Bay of Plenty, and the vicechairman of the South Auckland branch of the Timber (Workers’ Union (Mr B. W. I Jones) told udge R. D. Jamieson that further strikes were imminent. Mr Montgomery, who told the Court he was not a member of the Communist Party or Socialist Unity Partv, but a paid-up member of the National Party, said in evidence that the only reason the men had. not yet taken industrial action was “because of our concern for the state of the country.” Judge Jamieson was hearing a personal grievance claim by George Hori, one (of the 130 Waipa workers dismissed. Mr Hori has also I asserted that the dismissals 'of the men constituted a (lockout by the Forest '(Service. i Mr Montgomery, who also 'acts as officer for the South Auckland Timber Workers’ Union in its No. 4 area, said he could say categorically “that there would be industrial action at Fletcher’s at Ngongotaha” if the Waipa men were not reinstated. He said he had no intention to threaten or in-

timidate the Court, buti wanted it known that men| at Fletcher’s and other Bay: fo Plenty mills would "walk out the gates tomorrow oven Waipa.” At a mass meeting in Rotorua, the timber workers had resolved that they would walk out if any members were intimidated by management or union officials. The Waipa dismissals were in that category, he said. The meeting had also resolved that the men would walk off the job if either Mr R. Hamilton (national Secretary of the Union) or his deputy, Mr W. Gray, were allowed on to a mill site.

The strike which resulted in the Waipa dismissals had followed an entry by Mr Hamilton on to the Waipa mill site.

Evidence of projected strikes might be taken as threats to the Industrial Court, Judge Jamieson, said. He told counsel that such evidence held no weight with the Court. “The Court has to assume that everybody will accept its decision in a law-abiding manner,” he said. Judge Jamieson interrupted when the vice-chair-man of the South Auckland branch of • the Timber Workers’ Union, Basil William Jones, was giving evidence that workers at seven mills were preparing to take direct action over the dis- . missal of the 130. Mr Jones had said they

were, at the suggestion of the Federation of Labour, delaying strike action Bending a decision on the present court action.

Mr Jones said that the men dismissed from Waipa had the full sympathy of timber workers in the area. The branch believed these men were sucked into the strike that resulted in their dismissals, he said.

The director of the Commercial Division of the Forest Service, Alan Albert Bruce Webby gave evidence that industrial action between the first week in August last year and the dismissal of the 130 men on December 14 had cost the Waipa mill $1,700,000 in lost; production and $600,000 ini lost export orders. In that! period the cost ot the Bayj of Plenty timber industry! had been assessed at $14,000,000. “That loss resulted quite clearly from what is an inter-union struggle — from the tactics of a group of t ; mber workers that was a direct confrontation and which completely ignored the constitutional rules of! their union and democratic processes,” Mr Webby said. | All the jobs held by the 130 dismissed men had now! been filled, Mr Webby said. He believed that if the men who were dismissed were required to be taken back, the industry would return to a state of tension, intimidation, harassment, loss of production, and loss of staff.