Telecom engineers strike to continue

Telecommunications engineers will continue their strike action next week in protest at Telecom's new contract arrangements.

Up to 900 lines engineers will take part in a nationwide one-day strike on Monday in an effort to get Telecom's network division Chorus to abandon a contract agreement with Australian company Visionstream.

They say Telecom's moves will leave many staff jobless and put the future of New Zealand's telecommunications network at risk.

The Visionstream arrangement involves introducing an owner/operator model and requires engineers to go through the costly process of setting themselves up as self-employed contractors.

The strike action coincides with the first redundancies as from the model and follows numerous strikes and work-bans.

"This dispute isn't just about our members' employment but about an industry that has been run-down and squeezed for profit until it is dry," Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) national telecommunications organiser Joe Gallagher said.

The EPMU has also criticised the current state of the New Zealand network, which Mr Gallagher said was out-dated and inadequate.

"A lot of our telecommunications infrastructure dates back to the '30s and many of our exchanges are a decade past their use-by date," he said.

"But instead of investing in the skilled workers needed to keep it running and improve it, Telecom are driving them out of the industry."

Chorus communications manager Brett Jackson said Telecom was committed to the changes to the contracts. He apologised for any service disruptions resulting from the strike.

"These changes are necessary for us to make good on our promise to deliver a world-class network that can support ever-faster and better telecommunications services for New Zealanders," he said.

- NZPA