Hospital workers give notice of industrial action

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 5

Hospital workers give notice of industrial action

Hospital workers in the Christchurch area will hold a stop-work meeting in two weeks, and may follow that with industrial action.

The action is in support of striking Northland area hospital workers.

The Christchurch secretary of the Hospital Workers’ Union, Mr Martin Moodie, said last evening that 14 days notice of the stop-work meeting would be given today to the Canterbury Hospital Board. That would be followed later in the week by 14 days notice of industrial action, which would be subject to endorsement at the stop-work meeting.

Both courses of action were agreed on by local delegates when they met yesterday to discuss the

Northland dispute. Some 1500 kitchen staff, cleaners and orderlies will stop work in Christchurch on February 24.

The union also was considering calling meetings in Ashburton and Timaru to discuss the issue, said Mr Moodie.

Hospital workers employed by the Northland Area Health Board have been on strike since January 19 over the contracting out of kitchen servicing to a private firm, Advanced Food Systems International, Ltd.

The dispute flared on November 18 when Advanced Food Systems moved into the kitchens. Workers immediately imposed a ban on any work other than preparing patients’ and meals-on-wheels food.

The action was in protest against the area health board’s failure to consult workers or the union before the contract was signed. The union called for the contract to be tom up and the whole issue of contracting out to be discussed. The board said it could not do that, and the dispute escalated. “Advanced Food Systems has said it will seek to save $200,000 on costs,” said Mr Moodie, “and the hospital workers are afraid that many of their jobs are in jeopardy.

"We have had instances of the ‘bid low and cut comers’ mentality in our area, so we are in full sympathy with this group of workers,” he said.