F.O.L. ELECTION Thorn in the side of “establishment”

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33527, 7 May 1974, Page 1

F.O.L. ELECTION Thorn in the side of “establishment”

(From our industrial reporter)

WELLINGTON. May 6. The highly popular secretary of the Clothing Workers’ Union (Mr F. B. Thorn) will tomorrow’ challenge the incumbent vice-president of the Federation of Labour (Mr J. L Boomer) for his position, in an election which is more complex than it appears on the surface.

It will be the first time an incumbent vicepresident has been challenged, though Mr Thorn only entered his nomination after Mr Boomer had indicated that he would not be standing again because of ill-health. Mr Boomer has since changed his mind, and now faces Mr Thorn, one of the highest pollers in recent executive elections.

The election has been interpreted as an F.O.L. power struggle between the president (Mr T. E. Skinner), who supports Mr Boomer, and who favours the Government’s wage and prices policy, on which he was consulted. and others on the F.O.L. executive, who want a more hard-nosed approach towards the Government’s restrictive wage policies. The vice-presidential election, which has taken an inordinate amount of trade unionists’ energies in the last few weeks, and was the subject of intensive lobbying today and tonight, is more important than usual for two reasons.

One of them is the strong rumour that Mr Skinner, for personal and other reasons, will not complete his present five-year term as president, which has three years to run Mr Skinner is chairman of the New Zealand Shipping Line, an appointment he was criticised for accepting, because of a possible conflict of interest. He has strongly rejected this. However, if he were to resign prematurely, the present constitution of the F.O.L. provides that the vicepresident would take over automatically. (There is a re-

mit before the conference seeking a postal ballot should a vacancy in the presidency occur, so that the vicepresident would not automatically take over). Mr Boomer was elected two years ago, before many delegates were even aware of who he was, and he is seen as a member of. the F.O.L. "establishment.” If he were re-elected, and then were to resign (say, because of his health, which has already been shown to be unreliable) he would be replaced by a nominee of the executive, and thus, as some cynical minds see it. perpetuate the establishment. The election has attracted considerable publicity from the Sunday and w.ekly papers, which Mr Skinner alluded to in his annual report as “untrue and damag ing,” designed to “vilify” the leaders of the F.O.L. and create disunity within the organisation. Since voting in F.O.L. elections is basecf on the number of members a union has, less than one-fifth of the unions control a majority of the votes. Many of the biggest are said to be mobilised in Mr Boomer’s favour, so that though Mr Thom may get the respect and votes of many smaller unions, he will pro'J-

ably lose the election for vice-president, and possibly, for his presumption, nis seat on the executive.