Association neutral in shop dispute

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 6

Association neutral in shop dispute

The Canterbury Restaurant Association will not take sides in a dispute between the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union and the Y.W.C.A. over the use of volunteer workers in the Supa Sandwich shpp run by the Y.W.C.A. in Christchurch. The association’s president, Mr Bede Cosgriff, said that the matter had been, discussed at the association’s meeting last week-end and it had decided not to take a firm stance. “We were faced with a number of conflicting

viewpoints. While we were not really keen on the idea of unpaid labour, we must subscribe to the idea of free enterprise,” said Mr Cosgriff. The union objected to the Y.W.C.A.’s using volunteers at the expense of two female workers who had been made redundant when the organisation bought the Supa Sandwich business and began trading this month. The Y.W.C.A. is using the takeaway shop to . raise money for charitable work and to provide work experience for the unemployed.