Storemen still tied to national body

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 6

Storemen still tied to national body

Industrial reporter

The Canterbury Storemen and Packers’ Union is still affiliated to the national federation, in spite of a postal ballot in December which voted 552 to 143 in favour of leaving the parent body. Legal advisers in the Labour Department say the ballot was invalid, according to the federation’s secretary (Mr P. J. Mansor). Mr Mansor said he would send a reminder notice for capitation fees to the Canterbury union today.

As well, the federation had filed claims for the renewal of the freight forwarders collective agreement in the name of the federation, including Canterbury. However, the situation may change again, because the commercial travellers have already received unofficial confirmation that they have been given permission by the Registrar of Industrial Unions to break away from the Canterbury Storemen and Packers’ Union and form their owi union. Official advice is expected this week. When the new union is formed, and its rules registered, there will have to be a new election for the executive of the Storemen and Packers’ Union because among the hierarchy only the president (Mr C. Conway Jack) is not a commercial traveller. The new executive might well consider that the results of the postal ballot merit a special meeting to vote on the recommendation that the union withdraw. Such a special meeting would conform to the rules of the federation. The background to the affair is far from simple:

In June last year, the Canterbury union held a special

meeting, at which the executive recommended that the union withdraw from the national federation. The vote went against the executive by 27 to 18. Then, in November, the union organised a postal ballot of its 3000 members, which the then secretary, Mr C. W. Keenan, justified on j the grounds that too few I members had turned up at ;the special meeting. The ballot was 552 to 143 | in favour of withdrawal. ] In a circular sent out at (the time of the postal ballot, [union members were told that the reasons for the ballot were threefold — lack of communication from the national office; failure to advise Mr Keenan when national council meetings were held; and failure to call for remits before applications were made for hearings of new agreements. These allegations were strongly denied by Mr Mansor. He devoted half of the March edition of the federation’s magazine “Warehouse Worker” to an account of what he called “the Canterbury Affair.” Mr Mansor said that the real reason why the Canterbury executive wanted to opt out of the federation was that the union wanted to save about $lOOO a year in capitation fees. The Canterbury union had also always been “uptight” about the federation being out of the F.O.L. Mr Mansor wrote to the Canterbury executive in December, after the ballot result, and asked it to state whether the union had abided by the rules of the federation, which require any decision about disaffiliation to be made by a special general meeting. There was no reply. Then, in March, the Canterbury union held its annual

meeting—and the old execu- : tive was replaced by a new one, dominated by commercial travellers. The former secretary, Mr Keenan, retired soon after because of ill-health, and a new secretary, Mr P. Piesse, was appointed. Mr Piesse was instructed] to write to the Registrar of] Industrial Unions (Mr R. A. I Quay), to see whether the! postal ballot on affiliation; was valid. Mr Mansor said that Mr Quay had referred the matter to the Labour Department’s legal advisers, and they said , the union was still affiliated. Mr Mansor tried to attend , the union’s annual meeting with the federation’s president (Mr S. H. Anderson, ] of Dunedin), but the former president, Mr F. Putt, used his chairman’s prerogative to exclude them, Mr Mansor said at that time that he hoped the new executive would see reason, but if it did not he would consider taking the matter to the Supreme Court. He said yesterday that he was “delighted” with the opinion given by the department. The Storemen and Packers’ Federation was constituted in 1957. It withdrew from the F.O.L. in 1971 and in the same year Auckland withdrew from the federation, which is the largest nonState union organisation outside the F.O.L. Mr Mansor has been the federation’s national secre tary since March, 1968. In the March edition of “Warehouse Worker,” he said that the stigma attached to the conduct of the Canterbury ballot "‘could result in changes to our industrial laws insofar as the present law is restricted to the conduct of ballots relating to questions of strikes and elections to union office.”