Drivers strike today, and more to come

Press, 23 August 1976, Page 1

Drivers strike today, and more to come

Fruit, vegetables, and rubbish—three commodities which normally move steadily on Mondays after a week-end lull—are at a virtual standstill today as the 24-hour drivers’ strike gets under way. The strike may be but a prelude to a week of industrial unrest—a predicted response to the industrial legislation of last week.

The prediction comes from both the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) and the president of the Federation of Labour (Sir Thomas Skinner). The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) has the opposite view—average unionists welcome the Government’s recent moves.

A meeting at 8 am. tomorrow, the official end of the Christchurch strike, will determine what further action drivers want to take in their protest against new strike amendments in the Industrial Relations Act. But although there is a possibility of further industrial action next week, the Canterbury secretary of the Drivers’ Union (Mr P. R. Liggett) has said that a continuation of the present strike is unlikely. City Council rubbish will be collected as usual today, because council drivers have a separate award and are exempted from the stoppage. But there will be no rubbish collection today or tomorrow in Paparua County. There will be no collections today in Waimairi and Heathcote, and collections there tomorrow depend on, the stopwork meeting’s outcome. Neither Christchurch Transport Board nor Railways Road Services buses will be affected by the strike.

City produce markets will be unable to use their vehicles to collect produce brought in by rail, bus, or air from other centres. Nationally, the week may

see many people without public transport, beer, milk, and even electricity. Unions seem locked into a collision course with the Government in a fight against wage restrictions.

Last night there were no last-minute appeals to the Government to make a conciliatory move. The president of the F.O.L. (Sir Thomas Skinner) said: “We have done all we can, and we will see what eventuates.” The almost inevitable confrontation has been described by Sir Thomas as the worst crisis in the history of the federation. The situation might get worse tomorrow, because a black ban on repairing live electricity lines may lead to widespread power cuts all over the country. And, after a meeting of the national executive of the F.O.L. tomorrow the Dairy Workers’ Union will decide whether to disrupt home deliveries. Sir Thomas Skinner will recommend to the F.O.L. executive tomorrow that a co-ordinating committee be set up to prevent any union being victimised by the new anti-strike legislation. “Average” trade unionists wanted no part of an industrial confrontation with the Government, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said last night. “I have had a constant succession of calls from individual trade unionists who say they don’t want to take part in any confrontation or strikes,” Mr Muldoon said from his home at Kohimarama.

He strongly disagreed with a suggestion that the

chances of a unionGovemment clash had increased in the last week. “Indeed, the feeling I get is exactly the opposite. I have had very strong responses all over the country from trade unionists to the effect that what the Government has done, and particularly the price freeze has, in their view, stabilised the situation.” The Industrial Relations Amendment Act, pushed through Parliament last week, was described by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) on Saturday as panic legislation, designed to deal with a specific problem, but which would inevitably make it worse. In an address to the third annual conference of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, Mr Rowling said the subtleties of the industrial world were not understood by the present Government.

“It almost appears as if the Prime Minister himself is not interested in finding out," he said. “The industrial legislation passed this week is thoroughly bad and will increase industrial unrest. It did not deal with the problem of defining the exceptional case which can negotiate wage increases.”

“The Industrial Council exists to advise the Government on industrial law, but it was .not consulted and nor apparently was the Employers’ Federation or the Federation of Labour. '

“This is not the right way to make industrial legislation.”