More effective ban this year

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33213, 1 May 1973, Page 14

More effective ban this year

(New Zealand Preu Association) WELLINGTON, April 30. The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) said tonight that union action in protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific would be more effective this year because of greatly increased co-ordination.

During French testing at Mururoa Atoll last year Mr Skinner led the F.OX. in a total ban on French services to and from New Zealand.

result of this year’s ban on French shipping and aircraft. A.C.T.U. INTENTIONS It should be remembered that countries that might have otherwise taken up the orders would also be involved in the protest action, Mr Skinner said. He said that besides the declared intentions of the A.C.T.U., the F.O.L. had received indications from trade union movements in Japan, Singapore, and Fiji that protest action would be taken in those countries.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions joined the F.O.L. in a similar but smaller protest. This year the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has threatened that its 52m members around the world will adopt similar banning tactics on a united front. Mr Skinner said that New Zealand would be less likely to lose export markets as a

Meanwhile, a spokesman in Wellington for U.T.A.-French Airlines, the company hit hard by last year's F.O.L. protests, said today that he has received no instructions regarding the threat of more trade union action. FLETCHERS’ LOSS

A Federation of Labour ban on French shipping might pose problems for the Fletcher Timber, Ltd, plywood factory at Gladstone — as it did last year. The Sofrana Line has been used by the company to bring maple logs from Pacific island ports. The maple is in considerable demand because of the increase in orders for ranch pattern veneer. When the F.O.L. imposed a ban last year, the company was awaiting a shipment of logs on the Capitaine Tasman, a Sofrana vessel. A long delay in unloading cost Fletchers several thousand dollars.