Minister orders engineering study

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 1

Minister orders engineering study

The Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr AdamsSchneider) has asked his department to investigate the plight of the engineering industry in Canterbury and to report to him.

Mr Adams-Schneider said this in reply to a telegram from the Engineers’ Union, the Canterbury Employers’ Association and the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, after news of impending lay-offs at Andrews and Beaven, Ltd, a leading Christchurch engineering firm. He told the union that he was “deeply concerned” about the situation which had arisen in Canterbury. The three Canterbury organisations sent the telegram last week, urging the Minister to assist the engineering industry in the Canterbury area. It was thought that 19 engineers and 11 boilermakers would be made re-

dundant at the Middleton works of the company. Negotiations, however, between the company and the Canterbury branch of the Engineers’ Union has led to a whittling down of the number of engineers to be made redundant from the original 19 to 14. The branch secretary (Mr R. J. Todd) said yesterday that another meeting would be held today to negotiate a redundancy agreement for the men. Meanwhile, another engineering firm in Christchurch has been experiencing difficulties. The managing director of Hannan Engineering Company, Ltd, of Addington (Mr R. J. Bridson), said yesterday that four out of the eight engineers employed by the firm had been given notice of redundancy because of insufficient work. The factory produces farm machinery and bulkhandling equipment.

However, Mr Bridson said he was now hopeful that the four might be kept on because of new orders coming in. He said he would discuss the situation with the Engineers’ Union today. A potential dispute between the South Island Boilermakers’ Union and Ceramco (N.Z.), Ltd, has been averted. Ceramco was to close its subsidiary, Norman J. Kuril and Company (N.Z.), Ltd, making 35 workers redundant. The boilermakers at Kuril’s and at the neighbouring company of Mason Anderson, Ltd, also a subsidiary of Ceramco, decided to resist the redundancies.

However, the parent company has now agreed to absorb the work-force of Kuril’s into Mason Anderson’s, according to a spokesman for the boilermakers, Mr G. G. Walker.