Strike threatens fuel supplies

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 1

Strike threatens fuel supplies

Christchurch oil-store workers have gone on strike, less than a week after petrol-tanker drivers went on strike. However, most service stations have had deliveries since the strike last week, and so supplies to the public are not expected to be affected, unless the petrol-tanker drivers carry out an earlier threat to hold a national stoppage for 48 hours. Whether they do will depend on the outcome of a compulsory conference on Saturday. Both groups of workers are taking action over the refusal of the oil companies to grant a claim for an 11 per cent wage increase. The 40 Christchurch oil-

store workers held a stopwork meeting yesterday and voted to strike until Monday in protest against their employers’ attitude. Timaru oil-store workers, who went on strike on Tuesday, will return to work today, but Timaru supplies have not been affected because management took over some of the workers' duties. However. in Christchurch the Labourers’ Union has organised pickets to reinforce their strike. Petrol-tanker drivers have agreed not to cross the picket lines and clerical workers have been told by their union not to do any work normally done by the storemen. Mr W. B. Brown, South

Island secretary of the Labourers’ Union, said after the meeting yesterday that a dispensation would be given to all essential industries, including the supply of aviation fuel for Antarctica and the civil emergencies at Mount Cook and Haast. He said that the workers in Christchurch would ban overtime from next Monday until award negotiations resumed. It is believed that some petrol tankers were filled up yesterday afternoon in readiness for deliveries today. Mr Brown said that these tankers would be allowed to make their deliveries. Oil-store workers at Auckland and Mount

Maunganui have also gone on strike for 48 hours. Mr Brown said that the strike by Timaru and Christchurch oil-store workers was their first over wage claims that he could recall. Mr S. Marshall, executive officer of the Oil Industry Union of Employers, said that the oil-store workers’ strike was illegal. As members of an “essential industry” the storemen had not given 14 days notice of their intention to strike, he said. The storemen and employers were also in the middle of formal conciliation talks.

In “negotiating circles” it was considered unethical to take direct action in

support of claims when those claims were “on the negotiating table,” Mr Marshall said. Picketing would put the petrol-tanker drivers in a very awkward position, he said. Conciliation on the drivers’ claims was to start at Auckland on Saturday. One of the requirements of conciliation was that both parties allowed normal duties to continue during negotiations. The oil companies believed that negotiation was the only way to resolve the storemen’s claims, said Mr Marshall. The companies would not give way “purely and simply because a union was applying industrial muscle and illegal tactics.”