Striking workers press on

Hundreds of telephone line engineers are set to begin a second round of strikes as they fight for redundancy protection.

More than 900 workers from Downer EDi Engineering and Transfield Services, who are contracted to do line maintenance for Telecom, will walk off the job today.

The strike could affect Telecom's phone, internet and Eftpos workers.

The action comes as Telecom's network division Chorus moves to an owner-operator model after the signing of a 10-year contract with Visionstream in Auckland and Northland.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said the workers were striking for redundancy protection.

EPMU communications manger Neale Jones said Visionstream was looking to turn the individual workers into dependent contractors.

"Sort of as a response to this, Downer and other contractors have started trying to force people into the same kind of model, or make them work for piece rates, which means they get paid per job rather than a wage.

"They want some basic redundancy protection so that no matter what happens, they won't be left without a job in the middle of the recession."

- NZPA