Govt halts bridge work

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 4

Govt halts bridge work

PA Wellington The Government would not let any more contracts In Auckland until the Mangere Bridge dispute was settled, said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) yesterday. He told a delegation from the Master Builders’ Federation that the Government would not tolerate the Gov-ernment-financed bridge — work on which has been at a standstill for the last eight months — lying “unbuilt” anv longer. One way to ensure that such a settlement was reached was to cut off all further Government contracts, he said. The bridge contractor, Wilkins and Davies, Ltd, sacked the 140 men working on the construction site last May, after a series of rolling strikes in support of increased redundancy agreements.

Yesterday afternoon the president of the Master Builders’ Federation (Mr D.

Paterson) said he understood from Mr Muldoon that the decision applied only to the Auckland area.

“The indication I got was that if people cannot settle it, he will make it hurt a lot of other people,” Mr Paterson said. “That concerns me."

Earlier this weeb, Mr Paterson said he hoped that there would be an early settlement of the dispute at a disputes committee meeting. But when the committee met in Auckland on Thursday representatives of the Labourers’ and Carpenters' Unions refused to take part. “I do not know where we go now. We don’t want to pay higher redundancy, and they do not like what we are paying,” Mr Paterson said.

He could see no prospect of the dispute’s being solved by arbitration, after the union’s refusal to take part in the normal disputes procedure.