Kawerau dispute may be close to solution

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 6

Kawerau dispute may be close to solution

PA Wellington The Kawerau dispute, which has cost the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company SIBM and lasted for 32 days, was “poised on a knife edge," Mid the Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon) last evening. A solution to the dispute might depend on two meetings today.

Representatives of the 14 unions involved will meet at Kawerau. and employers’ representatives are expected to meet in Wellington. Mr Gordon said he was' willing to meet representatives from the employers today at Parliament if thev wished, and he would cancel other meetings to make this possible.

On Saturday, day-long talks between the unions and management at Kawerau failed to resolve the dispute over conditions for a return to work for the 2000 men at the mill.

Mr Gordon said he had been kept fully informed of developments at that meeting, and at another on Friday. He believed the two sides had reached agreement on many points at issue. However, two or three points, at least one of them a main issue, were still outstanding. Mr Gordon said he could not disclose what the outstanding issues were.

If it were desired, he was willing to call a compulsory (conference in an attempt to settle the dispute. The problem was the number of unions involved, which made finding suitable terms of reference difficult. If only one or two main points remained to be re(solved, these might be decided by compulsory conference, Mt Gordon said I The managing director of Tasman (Mr W. W. Olsen) said from Kawerau last even ling that he believed the lunions and management had

reached agreement on most points at issue. The company was concerned about hardship for the timber workers’ families and had made an offer on the unresolved issue. It was a "financial pay-up dependent on a return to work,” Mr Olsen said.