Rixen sit-in may end tomorrow

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 2

Rixen sit-in may end tomorrow

Nelson reporter The sit-in of workers at the Rixen clothing factory at Levin may end tomorrow. The secretary of the New Zealand Clothing Workers’ Union, Mr F. B. Thorn, told reporters at Nelson that the usual weekly meeting was to be held at Rixen’s tomorrow and that it was possible that the workers involved might decide to end the sit-in. “We have less than 50 per cent of the original 67 workers still there and we are up against the wall of Christmas coming. We must try to get these people on to the job market as soon as possible,” he said. Mr Thorn said that the end to the sit-in would not be the end of the dispute and he emphasised that it was imperative for the future of industrial relationships in New Zealand for the Federation of Labour and employers to get together to make the question of redundancies a top priority for discussion.

He said that what had happened at Rixen should emphasise to the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) that such type of action could spread “and the occupation of a factory in order to obtain justice for the redundant workers could become very common.” “If this dispute is going to end, it must end with the union making an orderly withdrawal of its people. We won’t be used by the Tories as a political football unless somebody believes that, if we have to finish this dispute, the trade union movement has been taught a salutary lesson,” said Mr Thorn. “They can take no comfort from that. It hardens my resolve for the future in my dealings with the type of people whom I know I am dealing with." “It is unfortunate that the industrial relationship between. the union and employers, which was a model for the whole of New Zealand and for many years the

envy of a lot of people, has virtually been ripped to shreds by statements made at last week’s award proceedings and by the member of Parliament for Horowhenua (Mr G. W. Thompson) and the vilification and finger-pointing at officials of the Clothing Workers’. Union and others involved,” said Mr Thorn. “This has done nothing for the future of industrial relations in this country.” Referring to statements made by the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) who visited the factory on Tuesday, Mr Thorn said the Minister had almost said that the firm’s managing director, Mr Ken Dungey, had imposed impossible conditions in his redundancy offer to workers. “If the Minister says that it did not appear logical to him that those who had left the factory earlier should have got more money, it certainly did not appear logical to us and the workers involved,” Mr Thorn said.