Tunnel free during stop-work meeting

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 17

Tunnel free during stop-work meeting

The Christchurch-Lyttelton road tunnel will be toll free for an indefinite period from 1 p.m. today but will be closed to over-width and other commercial vehicles requiring an escort. The general manager of the Tunnel Authority (Mr L. E. Olliver) said the extent of the restriction would be determined by the length of time of a stop-work meeting of tunnel employees. The employees will stop work at 1 p.m. and will assemble in the Trade Union Centre at 2 p.m. The meeting has been called by unions representing localbody workers, clerical workers, labourers, and engineers.

The member of Parliament for Lyttelton (Miss Colleen Dewe) said the situation was the result of a deplorable break down in communications. “I sincerely regret that at this stage of the negotiations to free the tunnel from tolls the unions should consider it ncessary to call a stop-work meeting,” she said. “It seems to me that staff are being manipulated for political reasons deliberately designed to upset them at a time when they are concerned about their future employment prospects.” Miss Dewe said much of the problem seemed to stem from a lack of communication between the authority and its employees since the abolition of tolls had been proposed. “This has occurred in spite of the fact that after the announcement by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) in Christchurch I sent a telegram outlining the situation to the authority’s chairman (Mr V. G. Spiller). I asked him to assure the staff that their future employment was embodied in any negotiations planned for the abolition of tolls.”

Mr Olliver is arranging for a staff member to remain on the control desk and another to direct traffic in the event of a breakdown during the stop-work meeting. But facilities to cope with a breakdown will be severely restricted. Closing of the tunnel will be considered if the tunnel employees withdraw their labour. Mr Olliver said it would be too risky to keep the tunnel open if emergency services and traffic control were not available. The tunnel employees are concerned about what they regard as procrastination over their future after tolls and the authority are abolished on April 1. They say that an early decision by the Waimairi County Council not to employ any of the tunnel staff shows that not even adjoining local bodies can agree on their future. The unions have now stepped in to get definite assurances about future jobs for the tunnel employees and their long-service, sick, and holiday-pay entitlements. A union official said the situation was the result of the “silly, fragmented scheme rushed in by the Government to carve up the Tunnel Authority. “The same object could have been achieved by one Government department taking over the existing tunnel organisation and phasing out

surplus workers as the requirements of running a toll- i free tunnel became known ! by experience. "As it is, we are heading to a situation where ex- I

perienced tunnel traffic controllers will be forced on to local bodies and replaced with unskilled people who will need to be trained in tunnel traffic operation.”