TRADE UNION SYSTEM

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 24

TRADE UNION SYSTEM

Need Seen For Modification

"The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, Nov. 22. Trade unions could not survive in their present form, Professor E. A. B. Phillips, professor of business management at Victoria University, told Petone Rotary club members.

The union system must be modified to meet the demands of a changing industrial and business world, he said. Management must realise that much of the work in industry was routine and humdrum, and it must provide greater motivation for the workers.

Trade unions were nothing more than a built-in opposition in industry—a party that would never come to power but fulfilled the functions of an opposition.

“Can we afford to have this built-in opposition, which has the power to put a severe brake on progress?” Professor Phillips asked.

A New Zealand construction company had granted a "depth allowance” to workers in a 40ft excavation, he said. One worker who had to climb a ladder at the bottom of the pit also received a “height allowance.” “This was a trifle ridiculous, but this Situation actually exists in New Zealand and all over the world,” Professor Phillips said. He emphasised that while he was not against trade unions as such, some modification in their structure was necessary.