Meat workers ‘kind’ to kill stock today

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 1

Meat workers ‘kind’ to kill stock today

The Meat Workers’ Union was “overflowing with the milk of human kindness” in deciding that its members should work today, said the union’s secretary, Mr A. J. Kennedy, in Christchurch, yesterday. Mr Kennedy said that the decision to have a rest day from rolling stoppages would avoid suffering for stock if they had to be kept in yards during the weekend.

Seventeen export works in the northern and eastern regions of the North Island were affected by the rolling stoppages campaign of the two meat workers’ unions yesterday. The works were in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, the King Country, Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay. Part of the area is controlled by the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union and the other by the national Meat Workers’ Union.

Mr Kennedy said yesterday that the nine-man national action committee would meet on Monday to consider its response to a letter from the Freezing Companies’ Association. Rolling stoppages would resume on Monday and would be called off only by the committee or at the request of the Federation of Labour, Mr Kennedy said. The association’s letter was a response to the call by the unions for a joint approach to the Government for an exemption from the wage freeze regulations to allow a resumption of conciliation talks on a wide range of award matters, he said.

The association had not mentioned anything in its letter about taking legal action, but the union had

learnt of this possibility from the news media.

Mr Kennedy said that the “draw” for Monday’s rolling stoppage would be made some time between now and Monday. The union is using an alley shaker to shake five marbles, each of which has a number representing one of the five “’mega-regions” which the two unions have decided will form the areas for each day’s stoppages. The stoppage yesterday involved two of those regions, unlike the stoppages on each of the other three days this week, when only one region was affected. A spokesman for the Department of Labour in Wellington said that complaints made by Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd, about an alleged lack of three days notice of industrial action had been referred to the district offices of the department for investigation and as yet there had been no feedback.

The Freezing Companies’ Association is preparing legal papers for an application to the Arbitration Court to seek an order for a resumption of normal work. The application will not be lodged if the unions lift their stoppages.

The association’s executive director, Mr P. D. Blomfield, said that the companies were still prepared to meet the union for conciliation talks on a num-

ber of non-monetary issues such as manning and technology. The Press Association reported that the Arbitration Court’s registrar, Mr John Hall, said it would take at least a week after the court received the application for a hearing to be set up. The application is expected to invoke section 119 c of the Commerce Act under which the Court can order a full resumption of work in an industry or enterprise under strike or lock-out if it is satisfied that the economy of New Zealand, in particular its export trade, was or in the immediate future, is likely to be seriously affected or if the economy of a particular industry was, or in the future, likely to be seriously affected. With an order for a resumption of work, the act binds the court to determine the procedure for settlement of the dispute. A union ignoring an order to resume work faces a fine of up to $l5OO, every officer and member of the management committee of the union a fine up to $7OO, and every member of the union a fine of up to $l5O. Mr Blomfield said from Wellington last evening that the association had its papers ready for the Arbitration Court and would file them today unless the unions gave assurances that the rolling stoppages would end.