Karioi workers join strike

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 381, 9 April 1991, Page 1

Karioi workers join strike

Karioi Pulp Mill workers joined the nation- wide strike action to protest the Employment Contracts Bill yesterday, following the teacher's strike last Thursday.

However the Mill management believe the Pulp and Paper and Timber Workers Union strike yesterday was unlawful. Mill manager Dave Anderson said the strike action was in breach of the Composite Agreement registered last year. He said there were various remedies available to the company via the Labour Relations Act 1987 following an illegal strike and that these options would be care-

fully considered. "The company is deeply disappointed that this industrial action is being (taken) as it will directly impact on production and therefore lead to further company losses," said Mr Anderson. He said there were already indications that the Bill will be altered while it is before the select committee in Parliament. Union representative Ernie Mott said the Union's gripe is not

with Winstones but with the govemment and its proposed bill. He said while the union head office directed the Karioi workers to strike, the majority of workers who attended a recent stop work meeting voted to go out on strike. "They (Winstones management) call it illegal, we call in wildcat," said Mr Mott. "If you find yourself in deep water you don't wait to start swimming." He said he did not see the Employment Contracts Bill hurting the pulp and paper workers in the short term, and Turnpage2

Mill strike

From page 1 that they were mostly concerned with the effect it would have on the workers in weaker unions. Combined Trade Unions representative Mike Cleary also said he did not see Karioi as being a problem area under the bill, but that the majority of mill workers saw the bill as threatening the working conditions of some of their families, such as wives and teenage children who were working. "Our gripe isn't with

Winstones," said Mr Cleary, "but we hope they will put pressure on the government to change this bill." He said the mill workers union and the mill management had negotiated very well without such legislation and that it wasn't needed. He said yesterday's strike was the first in 12 years at Karioi, which indicated the depth of feeling about the bill. "This bill will in no way help to create National' s 'Decent Society'," said Mr Cleary.