Mill return -soured

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 2

Mill return -soured

PA. Hamilton' The return to work yesterday at the Kinleith mill was soured when 70 contractors’ employees walked out over an issue which had lingered from December, before the strike.

Engineers and boilermakers working for four of the nine contractors on the site walked out over a redundancy grievance. But the agreement . with the Federation of Labour says that all bans and restrictions will be lifted, and it is believed that the president of the F.O.L. (Mr W. J. Knox) will be approached over the dispute, ■ Otherwise, the Kinleith pulp and paper mill was the scene of “animated activity” as workers turned out after the end of the 80-day strike.

| Several workers were . said |to have shaken their' bosses hand to show there were no hard feelings when they returned to work yesterday morning. . "One supervisor said it was quite-touching ■ — several men shook his hand and said there were nb hard feelings,” a company spokesman said. Early estimates showed that the 90 per cent of. the workforce expected to return did so at 8 a.m. “The turn-out on the first shift has been excellent — we have full crews of pulp and paper workers and maintenance crews.” . The sawmill. and wood processing plants hoped to be in production by last evening, when the mill should have enough steam to supply them..

The. managing director, of. N.Z. ..Forest. Products, Ltd, (Mr D O. Walker) said from Auckland that there would be greater co-operation between the • country’s main pulp and paper companies because of the strike. A co-ordinating committee was likely to be set up because of the Government agreement providing for an i n d u s t r y-wide industrial award. An initiative was likely to eome from the Employers’ Federation for meetings between the companies — in particular Forest Products and Tasman Pulp and Paper.

Mr Walker said the strike had also resulted in a better understanding with the F.O.L. and Mr Knox and with the company’s unions.