Stop-work talks for butchers

Press, 1 December 1987, Page 9

Stop-work talks for butchers

Retail butchers in Canterbury will hold stopwork meetings tomorrow to discuss the adjournment of their award talks yesterday. The talks adjourned sine die after the parties failed to reach an agreement on a wage increase figure and related claims. The union is seeking 11.5 per cent (reduced from the 12.4 per cent on the table at the beginning of yesterday’s talks) and the employers are offering 7.5 per cent. Mr Brandan Hooper, one of the negotiators for the Southern Distribution Workers’ Union to which the butchers belong, said the main source of disagreement was the money figure.

He said his members were keen to get some movement this year on their wages and a number were “feeling militant.” Mr Neil McPhail, the employers’ advocate, said he believed the 7.5 per cent offer was “pretty good.” The award,-one of three retail awards affecting members of the Distribution Workers’ Union, covers butchers in supermarkets, butchers’ shops and shops attached to freezing works. The grocery and supermarket workers’ award was settled in Auckland last Friday with a wage offer of 7.5 per cent. The retail non-food award is due to reconvene for talks in Wellington on December 9.