Worker shareholding urged by Socred

Press, 22 November 1978, Page 6

Worker shareholding urged by Socred

PA Hastings The Social Credit leader (Mr B. C. Beethami has given the league’s policy on the troubled freezing works industry. He said he was replying to the challenge from the president of Federated Farmers. Mr A. F. Wright, for political parties to state their position before the General Election. The freezing works crisis underlined the need for greater New Zealand ownership of freezing works. Mr Beetham said. Social Credit had long urged greater New Zealand ownership and more co-operative ownership. Mr Beerham was -peaking at a public meeting last evening of more than 500 in support of his deputy leader, Mr Jeremv Dwyer, a candidate for the marginal Hastings seat. Social Credit would encourage the establishment of smaller freezing works throughout New Zealand, he said. He said Social Credit planned for worker shareholdings in industrial plants such as freezing works, coupled with reorganisation of trade unions for the longterm solution. The present financial system was send-

ing production “down the) drain.” “The average working! fanner would be better off selling his land, buying a flash! house in town, and putting! the rest of his money in some! fringe financial institution such as a finance company, merchant bank, or solicitor’s trust account,” he said. “He could go home and sit in an armchair and get more money than by working on his farm,” Mr Beetham said. “It is up to three times more profitable to convert your money to assets and manipulate money — where is the incentive to work?” At present productive industries were paying an average of 18 per cent to keep factories going. Companies could not cope with I the costs and were being ' forced to withdraw from production. which was putting people out of work. t Mr Beetham reiterated! | Social Credit policy for a pre-) imium income for farmers asl the only way to guarantee! farming viability. “Such a premium would guarantee the farmer his cost of production and a reasonable profit,” Mr Beetham 1 said. I What was needed in the 'short term was the elevation

of awards and agreements to the level of formal legal contracts. These contracts would be absolutely binding on all parties in a “beefed-up” Industrial Court, he said.

It would be a legal obligation on both parties to take the offending party to action in the industrial court in a breach. In the long term, there were far too many unions which were too weak. “We have got 294 unions — West Germany has six,” Mr Beetham said. “They have 100 m people, we’ve got three.”

Unions had to be provided with incentives to exercise power commensurate with responsibility. He believed that the incentive needed was a painless method by which workers could achieve a shareholding in the large scale industries in which they worked. “They would then have an I interest in the profitability and productivity of the comIpany, and an interest in as I little industrial trouble as | possible.

“The great tragedy is that we should have started on it 10 years ago. Had we done so, we would have a lot less industrial trouble in this country today,” Mr Beefham said.