Union to consider action

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 3

Union to consider action

Labourers throughout Canterbury will meet on Thursday to discuss possible action as a result of the breakdown of their award talks.

The secretary of the Southern branch of the Labourers’ Union, Mr Barry Brown, said workers would be informed of the state of the talks but a strike would not necessarily follow. “We will just be explaining what is going on to the members,” he said. Up to 1000 workers might attend the stop-work meetings in Canterbury, said Mr Brown.

While the union had accepted a 15.5 per cent increase in basic pay the employers’ attempt to introduce a $1 an hour payment for shiftwork was not acceptable, he said. The talks were then adjourned at the request of the employers because the union would not accept the shift-work clause. "The proposal for shiftwork pay is not workable,” said Mr Brown. Shift work was unacceptable because it had antisocial effects and there was a danger to labourers working at night, he said.

About 400 labourers in Wellington and the Hutt Valley went on strike for a week from yesterday after the talks broke down over a shift-work issue. An industry-by-industry shift-work payment was necessary instead of the sweeping proposal made by the employers, said Mr Brown. Disruption on Canterbury building sites during the meetings and any possible further action would be less than in other areas of New Zealand because of the lack of big sites and the scattered nature of employment, he said.