Striking telco workers will hold line

Striking Telecom lines engineers say they will stay on the picket line until they can thrash out an agreement that will safeguard their jobs and income.

The 900 Downer EDi Engineering and Transfield Services workers are contracted to provide line maintenance work.

They are protesting as Telecom's network division Chorus moves to an owner-operator model, following the signing of a 10-year contract with Visionstream in Auckland and Northland.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national industry organiser Joe Gallagher said the action would continue as long as Telecom and Visionstream refused to negotiate a collective agreement.

Mr Gallagher said the contract offered by Visionstream could reduce members' income by 50 to 66 per cent.

He said the engineers would not budge until the dependent contractor model was discarded.

Chorus chief executive Mark Ratcliffe earlier said not all line engineers would end up becoming owner-operators as, of the three companies Telecom has contracts with, only Visionstream works with the owner-operator system.

- NZPA