Vote to continue Nelson port strike

Press, 6 October 1987, Page 2

Vote to continue Nelson port strike

By

TONY SMITH

In Nelson

Striking harbour workers at the Port of Nelson ignored an ultimatum to return to work yesterday and later voted overwhelmingly to continue their Industrial action.

In a bid to break the strike which has shut the port for a fortnight, the Nelson Harbour Board informed the Harbour Workers’ Union last Thursday of the names of 13 people who were to be made redundant. The board also sent letters to the remaining 55 workers ordering them to report for work yesterday morning. However, none of the 68 union members turned up for work, said the board’s general manager, Mr Doug Green. The workers met yesterday afternoon to review the strike and voted to continue the action until the next review on

Friday. The union’s industrial officer, Mr Eddie Dickson, who came from Wellington to address the meeting, said a secret ballot had shown that 92 per cent of members were in favour of continuing the strike, a 6 per cent increase in support on the previous ballot last week. He said the workers’ resolve had hardened since the board issued the return-to-work ultimatum and published a public advertisement, condemning the strike, on Saturday. Mr Green announced at a press conference last Friday that the board would apply to the Labour Court for a compliance order to stop the strike if the workers did not return to work yesterday.

However, he declined to comment last evening on whether the board would now pursue court action.' "I prefer not to comment on our next move until I have completed

discussions with our lawyers,” he said. Mr Green was confident last week that the strike would be declared Illegal, because under section 233 of the Labour Relations Act only workers affected by redundancy were permitted to take strike action. An earlier application by the board for a compliance order was rejected by the Court which ruled the union was entitled to take action in support of its redundancy claims. The board is seeking a court order to force the dispute to be settled by arbitration, but the union insists that the two parties agree between themselves. Mr Dickson said the union was appalled at the board’s tactics of ordering non-affected staff to return to work. Under the harbour workers’ award, the employer was not able to' name directly, the workers affected by redundancy.

“People have been sitting round all week-end wondering whether they were supposed to receive a letter. It is one of the worst moves I have seen an employer make in 20 years of industrial relations,” said Mr Dickson. He said that after two weeks off work, members were “feeling the pain in their pockets. “But the actions of the board are not encouraging them back to work.” The strike was not only about achieving a reasonable redundancy agreement for the 13 workers. “It is essential that we get a settlement which will apply to land-based, marine-based and clerical workers because we know, and the board knows, there will be redundancies in the future through the restructuring of the port industry." Union officials met last I evening spouses and fami- ■ liW of the - striking > workers to discuss the effect of the strike.