Cement workers’ strike threatens building industry

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 8

Cement workers’ strike threatens building industry

PA Auckland The Auckland Employers’ Association yesterday asked the president of the Auckland Trades Council, Mr G. H. Andersen, to help end a cement workers’ strike which is beginning to hit the building industry. Mr Andersen said the stoppage would be discussed by union leaders next week “on our criteria, not theirs (the employers).” A letter signed by the president of the Employers’ Association, Mr Peter Johnson, and a number of building industry officials, was sent to Mr Andersen after cement workers decided to extend their strike at least until Tuesday when they will meet again. The stoppage, in support of a union campaign for a wage rise of $2O a week, has forced the closing of all seven Readymix Concrete firms in Auckland, and led to the suspension of more than 200 workers throughout the industry. Mr Andersen said the cement stoppage was hurting many big developers. Part of the object of the campaign, he said, was to “get at” employers so they would go to the Government to seek an end to the wage freeze. “The cement stoppage is not a matter of day-to-day consumer inconvenience. Apart from some suspensions, it is hurting mainly the big developers,” he said. The executive director of the Master Builders’

Association, Mr J. R. Dyer, said the implications for the industry were “horrendous.” He believed there would be suspensions from the middle of next week if the dispute continued. The Paint and Varnish Workers’ Union yesterday lifted a ban on supplies of newsprint ink to Wilson and Horton, Ltd, the publishers of the “New Zealand Herald.” Union officials later met representatives of the Printing Ink Manufacturers’ Association. The president of the association, Mr I. B. Welsh, said it had agreed to pass on to the Employers’ Federation a five-point memo relating to the wage freeze legislation. He declined to elaborate. The ink ban was imposed in support of the union campaign for a wage rise of $2O a week. Drivers taking industrial action in support of the $2O wage demand might strike themselves out of a job, said the executive director of the Road Transport Association, Mr Dion Savage, yesterday. Many companies were caught in a cash-flow crisis at this time of year, Mr Savage said. Although the wage-price freeze had held labour costs, there had been a constant increase in both new vehicle and parts prices. “It would take very little to drive some of the weaker companies to the wall and if they go to the wall, the

drivers will line up with them,” he said. Todd Motors laid off all * coachworkers at its Porirua plant at 12.30 p.m. yesterday, after paint shop staff stopped work. Normal work would resume on Monday provided the coachworkers agreed to stop such strike action and follow agreed industrial relations procedures, said a company spokesman, Mr Lew Davidson. Coachworkers at Toods stopped work last Friday after the company demanded they cease rolling strike action in support of the $2O a week campaign. On Wednesday they agreed to return while discussions went ahead on their request that the company and the union make a joint approach for an exemption from the wage freeze. Todds were told by legal advisers yesterday that they did not have a case. The union also got a legal opinion, and it was while the company was looking at it that the coachworkers in the paintshop stopped work. More than 1000 members of the Hotel Workers’ Union are expected to attend a stop-work meeting on July 6 to discuss support for the campaign against the freeze. Workers from wine shops, taverns, chartered clubs, and tourist licensed hotels are being asked to stop work for the three-hour meeting.