Business leaders concerned Progressive dispute 'ideological'

Business leaders have expressed concern the dispute between supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises and its distribution workers could mark a return to the more adversarial industrial climate of the 1980s.

Up to 600 workers at distribution centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch began what was to be a 48-hour strike on August 25 but were then locked out by Progressive.

Nineteen days later, workers remain on the picket line.

They are calling for a pay rise and a national collective agreement to cover the three centres but Progressive, which operates Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown supermarkets, has said this is not negotiable.

Pay rates vary between the centres, with the highest rates paid at Palmerston North, the lowest in Christchurch, and Auckland somewhere in between.

Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly said the dispute was concerning because it reflected a new style of more ideological union claims.

"If that plays out in the wider industrial environment, then I think it will lead to further industrial action."

The Employers and Manufacturers Association echoed these sentiments, saying employers saw the Progressive dispute as an ideological one where the union wanted a national collective agreement which employers emphatically did not want.

Chief executive Alasdair Thompson told National Radio the dispute had the potential to set a precedent on the co-ordination of action between unions.

"If they were to pull this off, then it could well lead to other situations where other employers who operate nationally see this sort of thing tried out against them."

He said the Employment Relations Act encouraged unions to try for national agreements - something employers would resist "strenuously".

"If the unions backed off the national [collective] side of things ... then I think you'd get a resolution pretty quickly."

CTU president Ross Wilson said the unions could work to ensure that what employers saw as an ideological issue surrounding the national collective contract was resolved.

He said the dispute had nothing to do with the past and was not setting a precedent for future negotiations.

"I think this is a most unusual situation. I would have hoped that the business community in New Zealand would have condemned the bullying tactics being used that have locked these workers out."

The CTU last week called on the collective might of both national and international unions to try and break the deadlock with Progressive.

At an emergency meeting in Wellington, the unions agreed on two key aims - one being to raise financial support for the locked out workers and the second to explore what industrial action could be taken to exert financial pressure on Progressive.

One way would be to prevent Progressive products being shipped in to New Zealand from Australia, with the assistance of the Maritime Union and its Australian affiliates.

Meanwhile, Progressive supermarket workers were to apply for mediation today after their pay talks broke down last week.

The supermarket workers' action came at the same time as the dispute with distribution workers.

National Distribution Union national secretary Laile Harre said the supermarket workers wanted an end to youth rates, a 7 per cent pay rise, and to retain the additional week of long-service leave some union members had been receiving for more than 20 years.

Union southern secretary Paul Watson said an application for mediation would be lodged today but it was not yet known when talks would take place.

- NZPA