Rixen sit-in ‘to continue indefinitely’

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 1

Rixen sit-in ‘to continue indefinitely’

PA Levin The 29 Rixen workers staging a sit-in at a Levin factory yesterday voted 27-0, with two not being present, to continue their action-inde-finitely. The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr W. J. Knox, arrived at the factory soon after 1 p.m. yesterday for a brief discussion with the workers’ action committee. He was told that workers wished a vote to be taken over the future of the sit-in.

Mr Knox said that there was never any thought of his coming to Rixen’s to ask the workers to leave the building and end the dispute.

All trade unions were still behind the Rixen workers and would continue to supply them with funds. “We will continue the struggle and continue in our efforts to bring Mr Dungey (the Rixen company director) round the table for negotiations again,” said Mr Knox. “The dispute will continue until such time as Mr Dungey and anyone else in this

dispute agree to a settlemen: which we can recommend tc the workers."

The suggestion that the dispute was to have been wound up was unfounded, and was due mainly to the reports from the news media. Mr Knox said. He had talked with Mr Frank Thorn, the general secretary of the Clothing Workers’ Federation. Mr Thorn had said that his comments on the dispute winding down had been misinterpreted

“What Mr Thorn intended to say and what he was reported as saying had two completely different meanings,” Mr Knox said. Attempts would continue to dissuade companies in Napier from supplying Mr Dungey, Mr Knox said.

“We have been in contact with several companies asking them not to supply him, and if they do they may find themselves with no-one supplying them in turn.” he said.

Mr Knox said that the F.O.L. had decided that it would no longer try to widen the dispute, and would keep the struggle concentrated on the factory. However, if'no further progress was made the F.O.L. might have to consider again the widening of industrial action. The Labour Party leader (Mr Rowling) visited the Rixen workers yesterday, just hours after they voted to continue their sit-in. Mr Rowling said that the

workers there were symbolic of a problem in the country.”

He said that he had not discussed the redundancy issue. His visit was “to see the workers as people." “I have admiration for their fortitude," he said. "A lot of those people in there are very young.

In Wellington earlier yesterday, Mr Rowling pledged a legislative code to deal with redundancies. He said that the Rixen dispute had shown how weak New Zealand was in the redundancy section of industrial law.

His party’s legislative code would meet a strong need in both employment and redundancy. A key part of the code would be an employment protection fund — provided by contributions split three ways between employers, unions, and the Government. Details of contributions had not been determined yet. The fund would not be for redundancy payments only. It would also be heavily involved in the cost of retraining and redeployment. In cases of an especially big redundancy problem “there would also be a case for special Government assistance.”...

One of the'features in the proposed legislation would require employers to give three months notice where redundancy was likely "particularly with the intrusion of new technolpgy."

The fund would not be a “vast sum of money.” “You just really need a back-stop in the event of a Rixen-type development occurring," he said. Unions would not be prevented from negotiating redundancy agreements. In Masterton, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) described the Rixen workers as “the innocent victims of militancy.” The sit-in workers at the closed factory had been led into their action by militant union leadership and were hanging on through pride, he told an election meeting last evening.