Pilots call off strike

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 1

Pilots call off strike

A strike by Air New Zealand’s domestic pilots that would have disrupted Christmas holiday plans for thousands of travellers has been called off. The pilots agreed to withdraw their strike threat at a meeting of the Air Crew' Industrial Tribunal in Wellington yesterday. The tribunal will now' reconvene in Auckland on January 31 to settle the dispute. Domestic pilots formerly employed by the National Airways Corporation claim equal promotion rights based on seniority, allowing them to progress from 40-seat Friendships to wide-bodied DClOs - flying international routes. Domestic flights on Air New Zealand and Mount Cook airlines are reported

to be fully booked for the long Christmas week-end. Air New Zealand has had to put on 71 special flights between Friday and Boxing Day and it expects to carry 50,000 people on these and scheduled flights, about 5 per cent more than last year. Aircraft refuellers, who had threatened to strike at Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch from Boxing Day, have accepted a peace package which emerged from a day of bargaining between the Engineers’ Union and the oil companies. In a third dispute, the chairman of a compulsory conference, Mr A. Hennessey, has reserved his decision on the question of a special allowance for Air New Zealand technical storemen.