60 footwear workers return to work

Press, 3 December 1985, Page 9

60 footwear workers return to work

Sixty footwear workers at the Skellerup Footwear factory in Woolston were back at work yesterday after being suspended through lack of work on Friday.

The company’s general manager, Mr Tony White, said that another 71 were still on suspension. He said that the 60 were taken back yesterday because striking Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union members who were picketing the factory had allowed a truck in with a load of gumboots to

be repacked, and the picketers were now also allowing non-rubber goods to enter the factory yard. Canterbury rubber workers are on strike over the breakdown in talks on their collective agreement. They have put black bans on companies such as Firestone, Dunlop, Feltex, and Skellerup Footwear, so that finished goods are not leaving the factories. The union’s secretary, Mr Roger Brott, said that he sent a telegram yesterday

to the employers suggesting that a resumption of formal talks on the agreement might be of benefit.

The rubber workers have been on strike since November 21. The union maintains that the employers have offered a wage increase which is about $1.60 a week short of what is needed to maintain relativity with the metal trades award, but the employers have denied that relativity has been undermined in the offer.