Freezing works dispute continues

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 3

Freezing works dispute continues

The dispute which has closed most freezing works throughout New Zealand dragged on yesterday with no sign of an immediate settlement being reached. More than 18,000 workers have been suspended as a result of a strike by shift engineers which began at midnight last Sunday. The engineers, who control refigeration units in the works, are claiming an 18.5 per cent Increase in pay. The secretary of the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers, Mr Glenn Harris, said companies had made only a 4.7 per cent offer. The next moves by engineers could be decided at a meeting of representatives of all freezing workers’ unions in Wellington tomorrow. Amid speculation that industrial action could spread, the secretary of the New Zealand Meat Workers Union, Mr A. J. Kennedy, said he could not speculate on what might result from the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Meat industry Association has asked the State Services Commission to suspend meat Inspectors in those processing plants which have been shut The association’s executive director, Mr Peter Blomfield, has told the commission that like meat workers, meat inspectors should be suspended under section 128 of the Industrial Relations Act as their normal work runs out because of the shift engineers’ strike.

“I have also made it clear that companies will not be paying their onethird share of meat inspection cost while processing operations are stopped,” he said. This was the first significant industry shutdown since the Government began charging for meat inspection services. Previously the whole cost of the service fell on the taxpayer, and normally meat inspectors continued to be paid during industrial problems involving tradesmen or meat workers.