Freezing men settle internal rift
Conciliation talks on a new award for freezing workers got off to a slow start yesterday with disagreement about the number and representation of union members to form their half of the conciliation council, The meeting began at 10.30 a.m. but was soon adjourned because of what the industrial conciliator (Mr L. Fortune) termed “a technicality.” The technicality, it turned out, was a dispute within the union ranks over proportional representation on the council between the New Zealand Meat Workers’ Union and the Auckland Freezings Workers’ Union.
The advocate for the unions is the national secretary of the Meat Workers’ Union (Mr A. J. Kennedy). The advocate for the employers is Mr C. Ineson, of Wellington. The parties met again at 2 p.m., after the adjournment during which the unions ! were to have settled their differences. But it soon became apparent that no solution had been reached and that their procedural problems had yet to be settled. About 3.30 p.m. both union and management rep-
resentatives met again and soon thereafter it was announced that an agreement on union representation had been reached: a negotiating team of 10 with three of the 10 representing the Auckland union.
Formal conciliation procedures then resumed and are scheduled to continue this morning and again tomorrow morning.
Neither management nor union spokesmen expect the three-day session to reach a settlement.
The executive director of the employers’ association (Mr P. D. Blomfield) had earlier expressed hope that an early settlement would be reached, but not even he expects a settlement this week,
The workers are reportedly seeking a 20 per cent rise over their present award wages. The current award expires November 12.
But Mr Blomfield hopes that a settlement can be reached by October, the beginning of the 1979-80 killing season.
Last year the freezing workers’ settlement was delayed until mid-December because of the Ocean Beach works dispute.
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Press, 12 July 1979, Page 2
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319Freezing men settle internal rift Press, 12 July 1979, Page 2
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