National action in prospect

Press, 2 December 1989, Page 10

National action in prospect

PA Tauranga New Zealand faces the prospect of a national watersiders’ strike unless a port agreement at the Port of Tauranga, idle since November 10, is settled soon, the national secretary, Mr Sam Jennings, says. A national waterfront strike by watersiders has not been planned, but it was still a possibility, he said yesterday.

“The national executive considered this earlier this week,” he said in Wellington. “I was personally opposed to it at this stage. But if the situation in the Mount gets too tough it looks as if it could be possible. The Mount Maunganui branch union president, Mr Steve Penn,

said yesterday a national strike would not be a solution to the impasse that has prevented the port working for three weeks. Employers want working conditions under any new award to be based on a five-over-seven system — five working days over any seven, regardless of weekends.

He said the loggers who arrived on the wharf by convoy on Thursday were told Mount Maunganui watersiders had turned down $45,000 a year. “But they were not told we wanted the five-day working week under the Labour Relations, Act,” he said. “Under section 172 of the act

the working week is 40 hours, Monday to Friday. Any variation can be agreed to by the parties.” Port employers were trying to coerce the watersiders into agreeing to the five-over-seven system by saying they would not be permitted to return to work till they did sign. A port employers’ spokesman, Mr Gary Blair, said the situation was not as black as it has appeared after national' publicity over Thursday’s loggers protest. He said the working week was not defined in the Labour Relations Act at all, and Mount watersiders would not be disadvantaged financially by working the new system.