Stores workers strike over pay

Press, 11 September 1985, Page 9

Stores workers strike over pay

Striking Woolworths stores workers picketed the L. D. Nathan warehouse in Mowbray Street, Waltham, yesterday in support of a $2O a week pay claim. The workers, who are members of the Shop Employees’ Union although they do not serve retail customers, want the payment as an interim measure until the company negotiates a site agreement which would give them aboveaward wages. The manager of the L. D. Nathan distribution chain, Mr Bob Brooks, said from Auckland that it was too early to tell if the strike was having any effect on supplies to local stores in Christchurch. Mr Brooks denied the claim by the assistant secretary of the Canterbury

branch of the Shop Employees’ Union, Mr Larry Sutherland, that there were already house agreements with Woolworths’ workers in Auckland and Wellington. “We are negotiating with the Storemen and Packers’ Union in Auckland and any pay increases will possibly be passed on to Wellington and Christchurch workers,” he said. However, Mrs Maureen Hilston, the union’s branch secretary, said Mr Brooks

w’as incorrect about on-site or house agreements and that they existed between the company and workers in Lyall Bay, Wellington, and workers at Wiri in Auckland. She also said that because Christchurch workers had had no input in any negotiations between the company and the Storemen and Packers’ Union in Auckland, there was no guarantee they would benefit from them. Staff at the warehouse will hold a meeting on Friday to discuss the situation.