CHH seeks strike injunction

Court action which began in Auckland and Levin last night to end a strike at the Kinleith pulp and paper mill has been adjourned until this morning.

Carter Holt Harvey applied to the Employment Court for an urgent injunction after about 280 workers walked out yesterday for an "indefinite" period, shutting down the entire mill at a cost of about $500,000 a day.

Lawyers for the company and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union made submissions from the court in Auckland in a phone conference with Chief Judge Tom Goddard, who was on holiday before travelling to Levin to take the call.

Judge Goddard suggested he may today grant an injunction ordering a return to work until a fuller hearing next week, but said he did not want to do so in a way which would allow the company, before then, to make a full sweep of job changes in dispute.

"Let's see if we can get the mill up and running and preserve everybody's rights and positions as best as can be done," he said, giving the company until 11.30am to come up with a list of minimum key changes needed to re-start production in the meantime.

The company laid off 36 production workers yesterday and on Thursday, and is making 266 maintenance and stores workers redundant this weekend to make way for contractor ABB to take over the mill's upkeep at midnight tomorrow.

ABB is hiring about 120 former Kinleith workers in a maintenance force of 173, after months of union legal challenges to the mill's restructuring plans.

Carter Holt Harvey lawyer Rob Towner told the court the company was within its rights under an expired collective contract to seek changes to shifts and duties, before negotiating a new agreement at talks due to start on Tuesday, and the strike was therefore illegal.

Union lawyer Anne-Marie Hendra said the workers were prepared for shift changes but the company had until now delayed negotiating major new conditions such as staff demotions and a reduction in the range of work and wages bands.