Union council urged

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 1

Union council urged

. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, September 1. J The time had come to form an [ “Australasian Council of Trade Unions,” the president of the New d Zealand Federation of Labour (Mr T. j| E. Skinner) told the Australian Council d of Trade Unions congress in Melbourne today.

He said Australia and New Zealand had the same kind of problems in industry and similar governments.

“The time has come when we should get very close together so that w e know exactly where we are going,” Mr Skinner told the congress.

He congratulated the A.C.T.U. on entering the field of retail trade in Melbourne and said he hoped that one day New Zealand would have a branch of Bourke’s, Melbourne’s union-run retail store.

Helpful advice “The New Zealand federation does not know enough yet to go ahead, but we hope your advice will help us to get in this kind of business.” Mr Skinner said that the Australian and New Zealand governments got together on big issues such as the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, and, “if it is good enough for the governments it is good enough for the trade unions of the two countries to organise themselves on the same basis.” Mr Skinner said his point was illustrated by a union battle with shipowners where the New Zealand unionists won an extra day’s holiday and the Australian unionists got an extra week, from the same groups of shipowners. New Zealand workers were

in a desperate position with wages tied down under the recently introduced Stabilisation of Remuneration Act.

Workers were expected to labour longer for less money to save the country from inflation, Mr Skinner said. “All the act does is tie wages down and allow profits and prices to increase. Workers’ wages are depreciating and the trade union movement in New Zealand is tied hand and foot.” He said industrial relations in New Zealand were at their worst for 50 years.