CALL TO RETURN TO WORK

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33577, 4 July 1974, Page 16

CALL TO RETURN TO WORK

All workers in Canterbury were last evening asked by the president of the Canterbury Trades Council (Mr W. R. Cameron) to return to work.

Mr Cameron said he w as not clear about the Canterbury Drivers' Union and whether its members would remain on strike. The call to return applied to all workers who did not have instructions to the contrary from their own unions, he said.

As a result of th* actions which had taken place in the last 48 hours, the way was now open to have “a good, serious look at

the question of court injunctions being used to restrict trade unionists in their lawful activities,” Mr Cameron said. The Trades Council and

he felt strongly about the issue — and a struggle had to be taken on it, he said. The council’s executive would meet in the next day or two to draw up a policy on injunctions. “It is a question of injunctions in the civil courts being used in industrial matters. I think that industrial disputes at all stages should be dealt with under the industrial rules of the country,” said Mr Cameron. “If it is necesIsary to have some system of

injunctions, they should be dealt with under the Industrial Relations Act and not by the civil courts.”

The civil courts were not equipped to deal with what was “a very complex problem in a democratic society,” Mr Cameron said.

However, he would not subscribe to the principle that there be one law for trade unionists and another for other people. "1 think trade unionists should be treated in the eyes of the law like everybody else,” Mr Cameron said.

The actions of unions dur-1 ing the last few days might l have shown the Government the dangers in the present : arrangement, Mr Cameron 1 said. “I do not know that it' would have influenced the' Government very much in ' this particular case, but it showed clearly the dangers of the situation if it should ■ come up again.” The Government had no control over the situation, and he thought it had realised this, Mr Cameron said. “The situation arrived at the point where it just about brought a general strike to the whole of New Zealand,” he said. While he did not think that special privileges should be given to trade unionists, he did not feel that what Mr Andersen had done was a criminal act. As a union official “. . . the best thing that could happen to me in my position is to be sent to gaol." “I come up for election every three years, and if 1 happen to do a gaol term on behalf of the workers, my position would be assured for life. It would be an asset.” It was bad to make martyrs, Mr Cameron said. As for Canterbury’s part in the strike, Mr Cameron said it had been a broad action which showed the dislike of trade unionists for the action taken against trade unionists. There was strong feeling about gaoling trade unionists.

If the Government did decide to do something about the legislation on injunctions, it would be in the interest of the community as a whole. “The danger has been illustrated,” Mr Cameron said.