143-day strike ends

Press, 27 April 1987, Page 1

143-day strike ends

By

YVONNE MULDER

After 143 days of a strike, the Wool Testing Authority dispute is over, with both sides claiming victory. The 13 people who have picketed the authority since December last year have been offered their jobs back. However* they will not return to work and will receive an ex-gratia payment from the authority as “compensation for not returning to their jobs,” according to the general manager of the Wool Testing. Authority, Mr Stephen Fookes. The dispute began when the authority said its workers should be covered by the Woollen

Workers’ Union rather than the Public Service Association which then covered them. Mr Fookes said the P.S.A. had now relinquished coverage of the workers and conciliation had been set up between the authority and the Woollen Workers’ Union to negotiate an award.

"No-one wins in these disputes, but what we set out to achieve has now been achieved,” he said. The P.S.A. disagreed with this assessment, and said the union regarded the outcome as a “major victory.”

The issue of union coverage had not yet been resolved, said a P.S.A. organiser, Mr Philip Butler.

A meeting of the P.S.A. and other unions, under the auspices of the Federation of Labour, would determine the union coverage of the various groups at the authority, he said. “But we have won the issue of whose right it is to decide on union coverage,” he said. “It is up to the unions, not the employers, to decide which union covers the workers in a particular place of work.” Mr Butler said the strikers were extremely pleased with the outcome.. “They have tamed this employer and been paid for their efforts,” he said. “After years of unacceptable management practices the authority has

been forced to change. It cannot revert to its old ways.” One important change was the end to monthly contracts for seasonal workers. The contracts with workers would now be for the whole season, said Mr Butler. About 120 workers continued to work while the strikers picketed. At first there were 23 on strike, but 10 had to leave to go back to university. The 11 women and two men had decided not to return to work because while they were on the picket line they had seen what sort of employer the authority was,,Mr Butler said.