Some metal industry workers in Auckland are on strike. Photo / Getty Images
Some metal industry workers in Auckland are on strike. Photo / Getty Images
Union members at FMI Building Innovation in Auckland have gone on strike and say they’ve been locked out in the run-up to Christmas.
But company director Warren Lewis said the the vast majority of workers were not striking and he was confident a solution could be reached soon, for everybody’sbenefit.
“They gave strike notice for today and on Monday and the owner of the company locked them out for two weeks,” E tū union team leader Scott Mackie told the Herald.
He said the key point of disagreement at the Mt Wellington manufacturer was pay.
Mackie said he was not concerned about claims that the strike was illegal. Legal threats or claims of illegality were common when strikes happened.
Lewis told the Herald he was disappointed the union had raised an issue about his personal money, which was separate from the business.
This afternoon he alleged the strike was illegal and the company would take appropriate action for damages.
He said E tū had not consulted all its members on the strike and said 10 per cent of union members at the company left recently in protest at union policies.
“Only recently has the union approached our staff and currently they have about 70 staff who have joined the union.”
Lewis said the business had no issues with people joining the union but E tū’s demands should be put in perspective.
“They represent just under 20 per cent of our total staff.”
Warren Lewis, pictured several years ago for a story about a speed record crossing of Cook Strait, says he's confident a fair outcome in the FMI dispute can be found. Photo / Getty Images
The company made to a pay offer to all other staff and that offer was accepted.
“We’ve been negotiating with the union now for approximately three months.”
Neither FMI nor the union would say publicly say what the pay offer or pay requests were, saying doing so would breach good faith.
As is customary in industrial disputes, MBIE will oversee mediation, which in this case is scheduled for Monday.
Lewis said the lockout was necessary because of shiftwork requirements and short notice from the union.
“We understand from union members that there may possibly be additional strikes.
“We have been forced to reorganise shiftwork, which has necessitated us to unfortunately lock the members out.”
He said he was “100 per cent” confident a solution would be found at mediation.
Lewis’ donation to National was believed to be the largest individual donation to the party.
Today he said the donation was personal, was not his first political donation, was irrelevant to today’s strike and was unrelated to company money.
“I own multiple business other than FMI Building Innovation.”
He said the talk of his donation was a red herring. “The dispute has nothing to do with the business’ financial position at all.”
He was hopeful both sides would resolve the dispute as quickly and fairly as possible.
Mackie said the lockout was questionable. “It seems very weird that you wouldn’t be able to reorganise shift workers.
“They want to be working. They don’t want to be losing out on money ... They work hard and they do a lot and they just want fair pay for what they’re doing.”
Fairview Metal Industries (FMI) started in 1968 with a steel manufacturing plant in Timaru.
John Weekes is online business editor. He has covered courts, politics, crime and consumer affairs. He rejoined the Herald in 2020, previously working at Stuff and News Regional, Australia.
