Rubber workers’ talks soon

Press, 14 January 1986, Page 1

Rubber workers’ talks soon

Informal talks aimed at ending the eight-week old rubber workers’ stoppage will be held in Christchurch on Thursday. The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr Jim Knox, and Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union representatives will discuss the dispute with employers’ representatives in the meeting. The chairman will be the industrial mediator, Mr Maurice Teen. The lockout of workers, which has been in force since December 10, will be lifted on Thursday morning. Workers are unlikely to discuss a return to work before Monday. Rubber workers have been on strike since November 21 after a dispute over pay relativity ana a bonus agreement. The difference between the two parties was about $1.60 a week, but the union’s secretary, Mr Roger Brott, said the issue at stake was retaining relativity to the Metal Trades Award. Mr Brott said the planned talks were a “definite step forward.” However, the employers’ motives for agreeing to talk were questionable, and the parties were still a long way apart. Employers had previously refused to meet the

union, but last week’s decision by the Social Security Commission to pay rubber workers the unemployment benefit had seriously weakened their position, he said. In a letter to the commission, the employers had said the lockout would be in force until the union dropped its claim. Workers would not meekly return to the job, said Mr Brott. “There are a lot of very bitter people out there, and some are beyond the point of no return.” Workers will discuss the results of Thursday’s talks at a meeting which will probably be held on Monday. A Canterbury Employers’ Association advocate, Mr Neil McPhail, also said the talks were a positive step. Work would be available from early Thursday morning, said Mr McPhail. Social Welfare Department staff were inundated with several hundred applications for the unemployment benefit from rubber workers yesterday. It could be up to five weeks before benefits are paid out. Emergency benefits could be paid out to anyone who was “desperate” in the meantime, said a social welfare spokesman.