Strike by Feltex workers

Press, 16 June 1982, Page 6

Strike by Feltex workers

Production of carpets at the Upper Riccarton factory of Feltex, Carpets New Zealand, Ltd, stopped yesterday, when the 550 workers went" on strike. The secretary of the Canterbury Woollen Mill Workers’ Union, Mr D. Shehker, said that the workers would meet again this; morning to decide whether to continue the strike:. He said that they voted by secret ballot to strike in support of workers in/the setting department, who have been on; strike , for a week in a dispute over warnings given by the company to .twd workers. / Mr Shenker said that the

warnings were given persuant to the termination clause of the. carpet workers’ award, But the workers were already being penalised through loss of bonus pay through having to rectify the mistakes which led to the warnings. He said that the workers felt it was unjust to be penalised twice. The company had classified technical mistakes as “less than serious misconduct,” which was then a cause for first an oral warning, then a written . warning, then. dismissal. The industrial. relations manager of Feltex New Zea--land, Mr Roy Waller, was unavailable for comment yesterday.