Christchurch truck firms determined to hold out against drivers’ strike

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 1

Christchurch truck firms determined to hold out against drivers’ strike

Road transport firms in Christchurch are determined to '’’stick together” to counteract the surprise continuation of the strike hy 200 truck drivers in five big Christchurch companies.

"We will stick together. If carriers affected by the strike need vehicles to meet contractual arrangements, other carriers will supply them,” said the president of the Canterbury Road Transport Association (Mr L. Griffen) last evening. This is likely to escalate the dispute as drivers are expected to retaliate with picketing and other forms of industrial action. Mr Griffen said the association was concerned that Canterbury had been selected to get the worst of what he called “the industrial muscle.” Most drivers in Canterbury returned to work yesterday after being on strike for a week in protest against the breakdown of their national award talks.

In a surprise move, 200 drivers in five big Christchurch companies held stop-work meetings and decided to continue striking. They are employed by Freightways, a member of the national Freightways group of companies; Williams Gwatkin, a subsidiary of the big T.N.L. group; Brightlings Express Transport, Ltd, a subsidiary of The New Zealand Express Transport group of companies; Certified Concrete (Christchurch), Ltd; and Rapid Despatch. Drivers at Ashby Brothers, a big ready-mix concrete company, are also reported to have met, but decided not to continue their strike. Mr Griffen said he would attend a meeting of employers’ assessor? in Wellington today at which the national situation would be reviewed.

The Canterbury area manager for Williams Gwatkin (Mr A. G. Williams) said he had proof that the Canterbury Drivers’ Union had given notice that it would support any driver wishing to stay on strike by paying $2O to $3O a day while they were on strike. ‘‘There are 200 on strike. That works out at $20,000 a week. If that is the sort of money they have I do not see why they have to stay out on strike,” Mr Williams said.

The union was not settling the dispute, it was just being disruptive, he said.

One of his company’s clients was going to have to pay $4500 a day in demurrage charges at Lyttelton for a bulk shipment which had arrived but could not be shifted. Commenting on the report that striking drivers were receiving $2O a week from the union, Mr P. R. Liggett, the Canterbury Drivers’ Union secretary, said last evening that the union had a welfare fund, which was administered by a welfare committee, made

up of members of the union.

It was a completely separate body from the rest of the union, he said. The welfare fund had been set up during a nine-day stoppage by the drivers in 1976 from contributions from other unions and organisations, pensioner groups and individuals, and it had been used since for cases of hardship within the union. The fund had since been supplemented by collections at drivers’ union meetings, Mr Liggett said, and it was “fair to surmise” that it was being used during this strike. “It is being used all the time and will continue to be used all the time,” he said.

The present stoppage had no time limit on it as yet, Mr Liggett said. He did not know of the employers using any tactics to circumvent it — “but if they want the industry to grind to a halt, that would be the right way to go about it.”

Mr Liggett objected strongly to the advertisements about the employers’ offer to drivers, which have appeared in both Christchurch newspapers. “Their figures are not correct,” he said “They are whitewashing the situation for the public’s benefit. Everyone gets the general wage order. They have spent about three grand on that. We would sooner see the money in our pay packets instead of its being used on that whitewashing exercise.”

Mr Liggett said the union had it ‘‘on good authority'* that the cost of living would rise 21 to 28 per cent by June next year. “All we are trying to do is keep up with that type of inflation,” he said. The drivers’ strike continues to affect Air New Zealand freight. Since last Wednesday, anyone wanting to send freight from Christchurch has had to take it to the airport, where all categories of air freight are being accepted, and this is still the case, according to an Air New Zealand spokesman. Freight coming into Christchurch is even more restricted by the strike. Other centres are accepting only Jet-X overnight freight marked “airport only,” and this too has to be picked up at the airport. The strike had meant a "considerably smaller quantity of freight” coming into Christchurch, the spokesman said. Road carriers whose drivers returned to work yesterday had a busy day as they cleared some of the freight that had accumulated at railway sidings, in warehouses, and at the Lyttelton waterfront. The regular Addington

stock sale will be held this morning. Last week’s sale was cancelled. Big yardings are expected m both the sheep and cattle markets. The road transport industry would “stand firm” in the face of mounting pressure from the Drivers’ Federation to force local wage increase agreements, said Mr R. P. Martin, the president of the Road Transport Association, in Wellington yesterday, the Press Association reports. Industry employers believed immediate arbitra-

tion would be the most sensible course, Mr Martin said. The industry was fully united in its stand to resist local demands after the breakdown of the general drivers’ award wage talks on August 14. “Drivers are doing themselves out of cash in their pockets,” said Mr Martin. “Since the drivers’ award expired in early July, the average driver has lost roughly $lOO in increased pay for a 40-hour week, based on our 9.5 per cent offer.” '