Unions plan action over Southdown

Press, 23 October 1980, Page 2

Unions plan action over Southdown

PA Auckland Auckland trade unions are preparing for possible strike action to support workers] laid off ’at the Southdown: freezing works. ! A meeting of 500 Auck-I land Trades Council and] State Union officials and! delegates at the Auckland! Town Hall, called mainly to! discuss Southdowm, decided on job action in protest! against the Auckland Farm-, ers’ Freezing Co-operative’s] closing of the works. Delegates were told to go: back to their job sites and: tell their workers at stopwork meetings about the sit-! uation at Southdown. They will also call for resolutions preparing groups of workers] for strike action in support] of former employees at] Southdown.

This was being done, according to (he president of the Trades Council, Mr G. H. Andersen, in response to “farming leaders, aided and abetted by some National members of Parliament and

captains of industry,” who were showing signs of taking the opportunity to “take on the trade-union movement.”

Mr Andersen said the combined unions had decided to make Southdown “an employment fight. These are] very good circumstances to Ifight to retain jobs,” he said. The unions had been told (yesterday of 120 workers at 'two well known Auckland (firms who were to be out of jobs by the end of the ! month, but he did not publiicly name the companies.

The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr W. J. Knox), who addressed the meeting, with the Labour Party’s spokesman on labour, Mr T. K. Burke, said the combined unions hoped that the Government would (bring pressure to bear on 1A.F.F.C.0. to keep the works ropen.

“I do not believe the company had to take this step at a time when it was diverting stock to other works,” Mr Knox said. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) will meet the unions on Southdown next week.