N.Z. ‘not on brink of industrial chaos'

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 18

N.Z. ‘not on brink of industrial chao s'

PA Wellington A visiting American lecturer has poured cold water on the idea that politically inspired industrial ur?"Jst is bringing New Zealand to the brink of chaos. Professor Morris Weisz, the former head of the O.E.C.D. industrial relations section in Paris, has been brought to New Zealand for a lecture tour by the American Embassy. A former officer in the State Department, Professor Weisz, referred to his labour relations experience in the United States and several other countries and said: “No matter what the political motivation is, you cannot get workers to go out on strike unless there is a genuine grievance. “The fact is that any intelligent group of workers will reject leadership in a political direction and choose a pragmatic course,” he told the Wellington South Rotary Club. : He cited a division in

American unions in 1950 over President Truman’s plan to pour aid into Europe. Some communist union leaders had opposed the plan, but many of them forsook their ideology arid took the pragmatic path. Intelligent, pragmatic policies were needed in industrial' relations. The greatest strength of a union was the reactionary employer who refused to deal with them, he said. Among industrial relations practices that he recommended to the Rotarians was an idea found useful in advising India. “Management is worried that if it gives a good settlement, it won’t carry forward to the end. The trade unions are worried that they will find the company is making excess profits. “The solution is to decide the minimum wage we are going to give and give them a little bit more. We realise that the cost of living is going to rise, so

we put in a cost of living indexation clause. “Now the money that we owe over and above this average wage, we nut inside in a fund and distribute it after the completion of the project — provided the work force has not gone on strike. “We put that in the hands of somebody we both trust for him to use in the administration of our contract. “The money is used as a measure of our good faith,” Professor Weisz said. He devoted piuch of his address to the effects of moving industry to cheap labour areas. “The businessman is more mobile. He can leave and go. The working man is disemployed, so he has built up a political drive on government to force the companies to stay on, and to stop imports.

“The United States Government has to listen to that plea even though it: is pressure for a bad policy in the long run,” he said.