Strike to continue

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 1

Strike to continue

The petrol-tanker drivers met yesterday morning and voted about two to one to continue their strike, which began last Wednesday. Mr Liggett said the drivers would meet again tomorrow.

The executive officer of the Oil Industry Union of Employers (Mr S. Marshall) said from Wellington that the corhpanies would like to deliver to every customer.

“However, we cannot justify the union’s selecting which of our customers are going to get the product and which are not.” he said. “The drivers are engaged to drive and deliver the companv products and it is the companies’ decision as to where the deliveries go.

“We obviously would like it to go to evervone but if we make an exception for one company how can vve accept that another company in the same situation does not get a delivery because the union chooses not to deliver?” Mr Marshall said that during a strike deliveries were made to the police, the Fire Service, ambulances, old people’s homes, and hospitals.

“In the case of Christchurch we also supply the

gas works because it supplies the hospitals. Individual companies are given consideration on the basis of extreme long-term hardship.” Mr Marshall said Crown Crystal Glass, at Hornby, was receiving supplies of fuel because if it did not its furnaces would collapse and the plant would have to close for about three months.

A spokesman for Air New Zealand said enough fuel was held in stock to keep its services going in the immediate future. “We are minimising the use of fuel and watching the situation very closely,” he said. P.D.L. Industries. Ltd. had enough fuel for two to three weeks and Skellerun Industries, Ltd, is not affected because it has coalfired boilers.

The dispute involves two separate but related

One is that the drivers want a compulsory conference to be the decisionmaking authority on several grievances, while the employers insist that the matters already before the Arbitration Court must stav there. The other, which has

sparked limited action in the. last few months, centres on the drivers’ starting times. The earlier action prompted the employers to go to the Court for a settlement but they also agreed to the union’s request for a compulsory conference.

Tentative agreement has been reached for the conference to proceed tomorrow but because its terms of reference have not been resolved it is in jeopardy.

The Minister of Labour usually lays down the terms of reference on the advice of the parties.

The union has been served notice that the Court’s hearing will proceed on October 10 in Christchurch. The hearing was adjourned ’ast month when the union said it had not been served the proper papers. Mr Marshall said the drivers had committed “numerous blatant breaches” of the Industrial Relations Act. The union concedes that it did not follow a requirement of the act to give 14 days notice of industrial action. Fuel delivery is classified as an essential industry under the act.