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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 5. March 26 1979

Construction Companies Won't Negotiate

Construction Companies Won't Negotiate

Since then the company and the Master Builders Association have remained intransigent. They have refused to have meaningful talks with the unions involved. In December, after 16 days of negotiations, they presented their "final offer" - which was a resumption of work under the former conditions, and a bonus of around $400 per worker if the bridge was finished in 6 months. The workers say that it would be impossible to finsh the job in that time. The Master Builders Association have also used the dispute as an excuse to boycott talks with the Labourers and Carpenters Unions on a new award.

Zac Wallace pointed out that originally it was convenient for the company to provoke a dispute. He said, "We've learned that the real reason for having us sacked was that Wilkins and Davies had a design fault in the bridge. The expansion joints on the bridge were built in Sweden, and when they came over here the temperatures were far too hot in New Zealand, and the joints nearly collapsed and melted, So they had to be sent away, and it's taken them months to rectify the error of the design."