Black ban, strike at engineering firm

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 6

Black ban, strike at engineering firm

Jhe Canterbury Trades; Cpuncil has imposed a, black j ban on a Christchurch con-1 tracting and civil engineering! c6mpany, Musgrove Bros,| Ltd, and the workers, there I hhve gone on strike about a] redundancy dispute involving! 20 workers.

'The unions seek ah agree-] ment giving redundant workers three weeks pay for the] first year of service and a week for. each -subsequent] year, as well as implements-! tion of a last-on. .first-off policy. The company, is. pre-] pared to give redundancy] payments to the 20 workers] op the basis of the Wagej Adjustment Regulations,! 1074, amendment No. 8, vl.hich provides a guideline of 2 per cent of the average of the preceding year’s wages, to apply only after a year’s service. In effect, the company is offering nothing for those with less than a year’s service, and about one week’s payment for each subsequent year'worked. The unions, representing labourers, drivers, clerks,’ and carpenters, have been! nego-

; tiating in' vain for several! i months to get a redundancy] -agreement. ;i 'j..S;Sbme'ofrthe 20 redundant' LwSfkers'.have already left;: . others are to be laid off be-: : fore winter. ] The managing director of ] the company (Mr G. G. Vick-

ers) said the redundancies were caused by an uneconomic tendering climate caused by competition. This was entirely a result of the economic conditions in New] Zealand, he said. ] The 60 workers met at the: Wigram site yesterday and] after a stop-work meeting] voted by secret ballot to re-j turn to work and place bans! on the servicing of contract-' only labour, the employment] of casual workers, and on work’s being done by subcontractors normally done by Musgrove Bros. A spokesman for the unions, Mr R. A. Lowe, secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Labourers’ Union, said the workers had then been informed by the management that -if they, were not prepared to work!

as normal and drop their bans, they might have to be suspended. “The workers decided that they were not prepared to be put in a position where they could be suspended or dismissed one by one, and decided to withdraw their labour until the matter is settled,” said Mr Lowe.

They also handed the dispute to the Trades Council, whose executive met yesterday afternoon and decided to call for the black ban. The ban is on all goods and services to Musgrove Bros until a settlement is reached. Mr Vickers said the company would try to continue its work as best it could while the black ban was being applied. The company had been using casual labour and sub-contractors for “some considerable time.” It was the only way to run the business in the existing economic climate.

The company considered its offer on redundancy payments was the maximum possible without risking more jobs.