Scaffolders return, 3000 walk out

Press, 24 May 1984, Page 8

Scaffolders return, 3000 walk out

PA Whangarei The Marsden Point construction consortium is determined to obey Tuesday’s Court order and keep eight scaffolders on the job, in spite of the mass walkout yesterday in protest at their reinstatement. The project director, Mr David Beldotti, said that Marsden Refinery Constructors “will follow the order of the Court today, tomorrow, and forever.” The walk-out of the 3000member workforce was decided at a meeting called after the eight scaffolders returned to the site yesterday morning. The eight men went back to work after the High Court at Auckland on Tuesday ordered Marsden Refinery Constructors to take them back.

Mr Beldotti said that the consortium was looking at a number of options and one was sacking the entire workforce.

“We now have more than 3000 people on an illegal strike, simply because we are obeying a directive from the High Court. It must be of concern to all New Zealanders that the workforce not only consistently flouts the site agreement, which they themselves negotiated and signed, but that court rulings apparently cannot be enforced,” he said.

The feeling of yesterday morning’s mass meeting was that the workforce should be off the job while the eight scaffolders remained. However, the union delegate, Mr Raymond Hikuroa, said that a dialogue between the union and management over the issue was needed.

The meeting voted to return to the site on Monday morning for a further meeting. The consortium said the problem began when scaffolders on the site refused

to work with the eight scaffolders employed by a subcontractor, because the eight would not go along with an illegal ban on Saturday overtime.

The eight men then obtained an interim injunction from the High Court directing the workforce to return to work. But the workforce remained on strike until the company agreed to refuse to admit the eight men to the site, which led to the company being found guilty of contempt of court.

“We were forced into this

to keep the project moving,” Mr Beldotti said. “Our hands are now tied completely by the Court ruling, which appears to be totally disregarded by the workforce.”

Illegal industrial action was crippling progress on the site and adding many millions of dollars to its cost, Mr Beldotti said. The member of Parliament for Whangarei, Mr John Banks, said the eight scaffolders were being used to create industrial chaos at the Marsden Point project. He said the eight men

were all financial members of the Labourers’ Union, but the union was treating them like lepers. “Instead of representing their rights as workers, they have elected to use them as political footballs and a mechanism to create further industrial chaos at Marsden Point.”

The High Court hearing in which the consortium was found guilty of contempt of court by Mr Justice Hillyer in Auckland on Tuesday was adjourned to tomorrow for the consideration of a fine and costs.