Action starts in Metals dispute

Industrial action has started already in the Metals dispute.

Workers from more than 100 Auckland sites covered by the key Metals and Manufacturing Industries collective agreement held a stop-work meeting at Ericcson Stadium today and many refused to go back to work.

The strike was proposed for tomorrow, but, said Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little, many sites decided to start the action this afternoon.

“Some sites will strike this afternoon and tomorrow,” he said. “Others will strike all day tomorrow, while some will strike this afternoon and again tomorrow afternoon.”

In Christchurch, workers will strike tomorrow and will hold a picket outside shop fitting manufacturer Hamilton Perry in Lunns Rd from 9am.

Wellington workers from Metals sites and other companies campaigning for a fair-share five per cent pay rise will stage a lunch-time picket outside the Employers’ and Manufacturers’ Association offices, 117-125 Lambton Quay, at 11.30am.

The Metals agreement is the country’s largest and most influential private-sector industrial document, setting the going rates and conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers across the manufacturing sector. The workers have rejected a four per cent pay rise offer, saying that they believe they deserve five per cent.

Mr Little said that the current action involved only those workers at the companies who were original parties to the agreement, but that they had the support of workers from hundreds of other sites.

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