Strike threats get results: Mr Reddish

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 14

Strike threats get results: Mr Reddish

PA Wellington Strength by strike is the only force the Prime Minis-

ter (Mr Muldoon) and extreme Right-wing elements of the Government caucus i can recognise industrially, the outgoing Combined State ' Service Organisations’ chairman, Mr I. E. Reddish, has 1 said. The Prime Minister and i some Cabinet Ministers had ’“tossed aside" discussion. 1 arbitration, and compromise 1 and human understandings for dictatorial and author- ' itarian control, he said in an 1 Interview. ' Mr Reddish said a situation had been created by 1 t Government in which he 1 could no longer work ’ effectively and which-1 i abrogated all his principles > of industrial relations. Consequently, he would < resign as C.S.S.O. chairman from September 5, but con- 1 tmue to represent his spe- * cialist area, the Post Office, J on the C.S.S.O. executive. 1 Mr Reddish said there was proof that when industrial ‘ claims were backed by threats of direct action the ‘ Government retreated. An instance was the State 1 Service ruling rates survey* ’ last year which was nego- 1 tiated by the C.S.S.O. with a • sub-committee of the State ‘ Services Co-ordinating Com- 1 mittee and resulted in a 10.7 1 per cent increase, based on the private sector trade ‘ rates ruling in July 1975. ’ “Resolutions for direct ac- 1 tion had been taken by post 1 office workers and railway ’ tradesmen, and it was quite t evident that people in ruling ’ rates areas were quite ready I to embark on industrial ac- 1 tion,” he said. Against that, the moderate c half-yearly survey groups in : the public service had their t

3.5 per cent increase dic-j tated on a “'take it or get| nothing basis” by the Prime! Minister. “Under normal negotia-; tions with the S.S.C. the! non-militant half-yearly survey area would have been' entitled to an 8.2 per cent ! salary movement," said Mr I Reddish. It had become evident in talks with the Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers that because a large group of people was not militant the Government would take advantage of their attitude and deny them! common wage justice. Mr Reddish said the breakdown point in, indus-1 trial relations was the Prime ! Minister’s office. Only one i indication had come from it I in two years, and that was that moderation was outdated. “In all my time as chairman of and vice-chairman of the C.S.S.O. there have been no major strikes in the pub- j lie service. “But there will be in the future. “To me, it seems the Government is deliberately attempting to shatter the credibility of leadership in the trade union movement, with its imposition of penalties all working against any chance of the right atmosphere for industrial relations.” The Government had brought two big changes into the political area: Dictatorial and authoritarian control at the top; and Government by caucus rather than by Cabinet, the caucus being not a Government, but a party organisation, said Mr Reddish. As had happened in other countries, this had made strikes the first weapon of the work force “and as a

New Zealander I do not like lit.” He said he wanted to see I restored a platform of [confidence and trust in i industrial relations which [would enable trade unionists ' and public servants to be sure that they were being treated equitably and fairly. ‘‘Human understanding is no longer important to the Government. It talks above the heads of the people, and makes it obvious that people have become less important to them.

“Government leadership has become less considerate to the needs of people. “Instead of bringing people together in planning and productivity, it is dividing and attacking, and it shows this in the trade union area.

“I do not suppose trade unions have ever been popular, but they should be accepted as a constructive, not destructive force,” Mr Reddish said.