Kinleith workers off job indefinitely

Workers at the Kinleith pulp and papermill have walked off the job indefinitely, angry that their collective employment agreement still isn’t settled after two years of talks.

The 270 production and stores workers downed tools at midday today.

EPMU regional secretary Mike Sweeney, whose members are among those on strike, said that mill owner Carter Holt Harvey had continually procrastinated during negotiations for a new collective agreement.

“This is an employer who wants to rewrite history,” he said.

“This company wants servitude from its employees, rather than active, skilled workers on the job.”

Mr Sweeney said that mill managers wanted to scrap an existing provision in the agreement, an enabling clause known as the promotion line, which dealt with the manner in which workers’ skills and competency were recognised.

They were also angry that the company would not allow site firefighters to be covered by the collective agreement and were instead trying to force production workers to carry out emergency response duties, he said

“Workers have given a strong message that they do not go to work to run into burning buildings. That is a firefighter’s job.”

“They want to get back to their job of producing pulp and paper,” Mr Sweeney said.

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