Wool Authority fails in bid for injunction

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 2

Wool Authority fails in bid for injunction

The Wool Testing Authority failed in the High Court in Wellington yesterday to get an interim injunction restraining the Public Service Association and the Federation of Labour from taking industrial action against the authority. About 22 authority staff in Christchurch have been on strike for 17 days in a dispute which began as a claim for a catch-up for State linkage and has become a dispute over union coverage.

The authority’s lawyers went to the High Court because of bans imposed by transport and other unions which are threatening to disrupt wool exports and have already disrupted the supply of wool samples to the authority for testing. Some are being diverted to a private firm, Wool Testing Services.

The corporate services manager for the authority, Mr Dewi Evans, said from Napier yesterday that the authority had made formal application to the Arbitration Court for a ruling that the appropriate union for staff is the Woollen Workers’ Union. A conciliator had been appointed to hear the case stated in Christchurch on February 16

and 17. Mr Evans said that there was. still plenty of work for the staff who are not on strike. Unions affiliated to the F.O.L. have been taking action in support of the authority’s workers. The secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Public Service Association, Mr John McKenzie, said that action was “intensifying.” A ban on wool exports had been in force for a week.

The dispute over State linkage went to mediation in Wellington last month but was not settled. Mr McKenzie said that the basic issue now . was the right of union representation.

The Woollen Workers’ Union had made it clear it did not want to take members from the P.S.A., said Mr McKenzie.

The striking workers have been picketing the authority’s premises in St Asaph Street daily and Mr McKenzie said that they were “in good heart.” The authority’s general manager, Mr Stephen Fookes, was in Wellington yesterday discussing with the Wool Board and other affected parties what should be done between now and the date of conciliation in February.