Unions ‘will concentrate on getting law on injunctions changed’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33577, 4 July 1974, Page 1

Unions ‘will concentrate on getting law on injunctions changed’

The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) said yesterday that now that the trouble between unions and Mr Dromgoole had ended, the union movement could concentrate on getting the law on injunctions changed.

Already last night there were indications that there would be widespread industrial action by unions in support of the move for a change.

After the release from prison of the secretary of the Northern Drivers’ Union (Mr G. H. Andersen), Auckland should be largely back to normal this morning. Public transport, petrol deliveries, the scores of strikebound factories and beer supplies were starting up again overnight, the Press Association reported.

Elsewhere in the country considerable unrest is likely to continue. Seamen at all the main ports will meet today to decide on their future action.

The New Zealand Drivers’ Federation will meet next week to fix a date for a national protest stoppage.

The Auckland Trades Council will hold a special meeting tonight to consider the situation but it is likely to hold back any action until the F.O.L. national executive has given a lead. At the mass union rally which followed the release of Mr Andersen yesterday several officials warned that the fight to have law changed must continue. “Fight not over”

The national president of the Drivers’ Federation (Mr K. G. Douglas) said: “What has happened in the last two days has got to be seen as the start of a camnaign to get the law changed. “If the law is not changed there could be stoppages and meetings four times as big as the ones we have seen this week.”

The Secretary of the Auckland branch of the Seamen’s Union (Mr L. R. Anderson) said: “The fight is not over

yet. We have got to continue our struggle to remove the threat of these injunctions.”*

Mr Andersen, himself, said the whole point of his stand and imprisonment had been to bring it home that injunctions should not be used against unions. He said he had actually been given assurance from a very high level that the law would be changed. Meeting with P.M. The national executive of the F.O.L. will meet the Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) in the near future to discuss its request for a change in the law.

Mr Kirk said in Wellington that the Government was prepared to look at the law on injunctions but would not do so under any pressure from unions during a strike or stoppage. He urged unionists to return to work immediately. Mr Skinner said it had not been possible to proceed with discussions on the point as long as unrest over the imprisonment of Mr Andersen persisted. “Now that this trouble is out of the way,” he said, “the F.O.L. can proceed with its efforts to have the law changed. “As the present unrest has demonstrated, - the trade union movement is very concerned about this whole question,” he said, "and 1

am hopeful that our concern will meet with a satisfactory response from the Government.”

In Auckland things began to return to normal last night. The drivers’, engine drivers’ storemen and packers’, freezing workers and tramways’ unions have all advised members to return to work.

Auckland Regional Authority buses other than those to the North Shore were mostly back to normal tonight. Tomorrow all A.R.A. and private services are expected to resume. Oil companies will resume deliveries from early morning and spent today working out priorities.

Wellington stoppage However, union protest action is expected to bring Wellington city to a virtual standstill from midnight tonight. All affiliated unions will this morning be told of a Wellington trades Council’s management committee recommendation for a 24-hour stoppage to show opposition to the use of injunctions and support of the repeal of this section of the law.

The meeting is expected to endorse the recommendation, and tentative plans for a mass march on Parliament bn Fridav are being drawn up. The secretary of the Federation of Labour (Mr W. J. Knox) and other national executive members will address the meeting. The president of the Wellington Trades’ Council (Mr T M. Hill) said essential services would be maintained if the stonpages went ahead as planned.

“Not enough”

For the trade unionist the release of the secretary of the Northern Drivers’ Union, Mr Andersen from imprisonment, was not enough. The main issue was injunctions, and Mr Knox said today the trade unionist still had the threat of an injunction hanging over his head. The F.O.L.’s national executive tried to meet the Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) yesterday to discuss amending the law to take away the threat of injunctions', Mr Knox said. But Mr Kirk was in Rotorua and the meeting could not be arranged. However, the F.O.L. would be seeking the meeting within two or three days.

“But the national executive fully supports any action taken, or pending, on 'this matter,” he said.

“We believe the real issue is one of injunctions, not just Bill Andersen, and will continue to fight until the law is changed.”

Friday’s expected stoppage by all affiliates of the Wellington Trades Council will be crippling from the waterfront, to transport and industry.

It will add to an already strained situation created yesterday, in an oil tanker drivers’ stoppage. By late last night petrol

was a sought after commodity in Wellington and districts.

And with a decision by the’ rest of the Wellington Drivers’ Union to stop work from midnight tonight, irrespective of the Trades Council decision, deliveries of other essential supplies including foodstuffs will be further hit. The Seamen’s Union stopped work on Tuesday morning on two conditions. The first was that Mr Andersen should be released, and the second that there be an assurance from the Government that it would repeal any legislation permitting the use of injunctions in industrial matters. Ferry cancelled The industrial stoppages caused the cancellation of last night’s sailing of the Rangatira from Lyttelton to Wellington, and this morning’s scheduled trip from Wellington to Lyttelton was also cancelled.

The Rangatira is expected to sail from Lyttelton tonight.

Boilermakers, attendants, firemen and greasers within a 30-mile radius of Wellington withdrew their services from midnight last night. Essential* services were maintained. They will meet this morning to decide future action.

The coachworkers’ union will begin a 24-hour stop-

page from 8 a.m. on Friday regardless of the Trades Council decision. Some members had already withdrawn their labour last night in opposition to the use of injunction against trade unions.

Views of Canterbury Trades Council president, ruling against Shipping Industry Tribunal, and Mr Kirk on changing the law, page 16.