Drivers’ strike decision today

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 8

Drivers’ strike decision today

More than 50 delegates of the Canterbury Drivers’ Union will meet in Christchurch this morning to decide whether the union’s 4000 members should continue their strike over the breakdown in their national award talks. . ‘ In a surprise move, the delegates voted earlier this week for a complete strike for three days from Wednesday. The general feeling in the industry is that today they will vote for a return to work but that there may be limited industrial action such as overtime bans, a ban on carrying trailers, or other forms of limited action, next week. The union has taken a liberal line on exemptions or dispensations during the strike, not wanting to alienate the public through adverse publicity about wastage. Even magazines were

given a clearance yesterday for delivery from the railway yards to Gordon and Gotch, the distributor. The company had reasoned that such weekly magazines as the “Listener” and "Woman’s Weekly” were of a perishable nature because their value diminished as time went on. Grocery lines have started to dwindle in places on supermarket shelves but no serious shortages haye been reported. A spokesman for one big chain of supermarkets said that the biggest problem was with fresh meat and fruit and vegetables. , Meat is not being delivered by the firms which have regular contracts, so that retailers have to go to the abattoir or meat works to collect the meat, and to the fruit and vegetable markets to get their produce. >;