Staff to continue redundancy fight

Press, 22 August 1989, Page 9

Staff to continue redundancy fight

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

Canterbury Education Board trades staff at the centre of a dispute over their redundancy say the fight will not end when the board does in five weeks. The organiser of the Canterbury - Westland branch of the Drivers’ Union, Mr Lou Burns, said that as far as the national unions were concerned industrial action would continue if a national settlement was not reached. "It doesn’t necessarily have to mean it will be board staff who continue the action,” he said. Waged maintenance staff have been picketing the board’s Blenheim Road depot for the last fortnight over their redundancy deal, which was negotiated by the State Services Commission. The deal is less than that offered to the board’s salaried staff who are covered by a different award.

The dispute involves about 100 waged workers around the country. Christchurch is the worst affected with about 30 workers.

Except for a brief respite to allow talks to continue, there has been no movement of school supplies and no maintenance work carried out in any school in the Canterbury and Westland area. The education board is receiving an increasing number of calls from schools anxious to know if they will get cleaning and maintenance supplies for use during the coming school break. In spite of the cold wind yesterday, the picketers said morale was as high as when the picket began. Picketers said they knew of a plumber in Dunedin who had taken time off the picket to go to his own wedding — only to return afterwards. “All the staff are very dedicated,” they said.