Minister steps in, but load-out ban still on.

Press, 14 August 1980, Page 1

Minister steps in, but load-out ban still on.

By

GLENN HASZARD,

industrial reporter

The Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, had a long telephone conversation with the secretary of the Meat Workers’ Union, Mr A.l J. Kennedy, yesterday, but the union will not lift the load-out ban on export meat applied from 8 a.m. yesterday.

■ In addition, the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union, which includes the Tomoana works at Hawke’s Bay, .applied its own load-out ban from' midnight last night. The bans were imposed in sympathy with, arid in support of, six Australian trade unionists arrested for obstructing the police, and others served with writs to appear in the Federal Court tomorrow charged under the Trade Practices Act. The charges allege that by blacklisting several carrying firms the unionists have affected the activities of a third party, Thomas Borthwick and Sons, Ltd. Those . arrested were meat workers trying to picket the wharves at Portland, Victoria, where live sheep were being taken to Ships for export to Kuwait.

The bans apply to all export products from meat works, including by-prod-ucts. They do not affect meat for the domestic market.

Mr Kennedy said that he had discussed the rami-, fications of. the dispute, with Mr . Bolger, who had. “wisely” hot threatened to use the Commerce Amendment Act; against ' the union. The act makes it unlawful to strike about issues, which the parties “do not have the power to settle by agreement between them.” When the, union originally threatened action on Monday, it specified that it would be taken against Borthwick’s, but Mr Kennedy said that the ban had been extended to other .companies because Borthwick’s had some of its stock processed at other companies’ sheds, and it was almost impos? sible to decide which was which. ••• .: ■

He said that the unionwas .not asking anybody to influence the Court in Australia. The ban had been imposed iri a bid to get the New-Zealand companies- to put pressure on Borthwick’s in Australia to withdraw its writs. However, Borthwick’s has said that it is not connected ’ with live i sheep exports from Australia, and that it had to bring the writs" against the unionists because while the carrying firms were blacklisted it was . impossible to Transport stock to the company’s Portland works. Borthwick’s New Zealand marketing manager, Mr Brian Freeman, said in Wellington last evening that a report quoting Borthwick’s southern regional manager in Austra-< lia, Mr Keith McDonald, as saying that Borthwick’s

exported 6 million live sheep through Portland to Kuwait, and was determined to press for freedom to export live sheep to the Middle East, was

“grossly inaccurate.” Mr Freeman said that he. had been in touch with Borthwick’s; Australia to clarify the position, and r Mr - McDonald - had confirmed that Borthwick’s had no connection with the . live-sheep export trade. However, Mr Kennedy said yesterday that if Borthwick’s was not itself exporting live sheep, it still had “plenty to do with the trade.” The union’s. position was that Borthwick’s had to withdraw the writs against the unionists before the New Zealand '. union would consider lifting its ban. Asked if the New. Zealand union; could persuade the Australasian Meat In= dustry Employees’ Union to lift • its blacklisting of

the carrying firms, Mr Kennedy said that this would be “taken into account in due: course.”

Referring to the wharf incident, Mr Kennedy said, “The unionists, were doing nothing more than protecting their livelihoods, and all they get is cracked skulls when the police moveinto them;” ■ <• He said , that there - was close collaboration between the Australian and New Zealand meat unions against what he described as the proliferation of anti-trade union legislation.

Mr Bolger has described the load-out ban as “nonsensical.”

“I can only believe that it is an aberration, and that-the union will soon realise the futility of its action,” Mr Bolger said in Wellington yesterday. He said that the only people affected by the ban were New Zealanders, and it would not have any impact on the dispute in Aus’ tralia.

“It can only be classified as a stupid stoppage,” Mr Bolger said. ' ,

Freezing companies affected by : the, ban began suspending workers yesterday. ‘ ■ At the Burnside works, near Dunedin, 25 workers were' suspended by Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, Ltd. The company also suspended 30 workers at the Finegand works, near Balclutha.

Canterbury works were not affected. The managing director of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, Mr D. Morten, said that the ban was an inconvenience at present but it could become serious with ships on the coast - ready to load export meat.

Killing also continued normally at freezing works in Taranaki. The load-out ban on export meat has aroused the ire of a Canterbury farming leader, Mr P. G. Morrison, who is the Canter-bury-Westland representative on the electoral committee of the Meat and Wool Boards. “As a farmers’ representative, I am appalled by the Meat Workers’ Union decision to stop loading export meat,’’ he said last evening.

“Farmers have accepted for several years, wrongly in my opinion, no export of live sheep to the Middle EaX to appease the Meat Workers’ Union. Now farmers and New Zealanders are expected to accept a load-out ban on our export meat for no logical reason.

“Farmers in New Zea-

land pay far more than Australian lamb producers do to have their animals processed, because of excessive pay rates in the industry in New Zealand, and now we are expected to accept a load-out ban on our product. “If the Meat Workers’ Union persists in this attitude we, as farmers, should insist that Federated Farmers and the Meat Board stop appeasing, the Meat Workers’ Union and ensure that we export live sheep as our Australian counterparts do,” Mr Morrison said.

The ban had surprised the Freezing Companies’ Association, said its executive director, Mr P. D. Blomfield, last evening. He said that the argument was between the exporters, the union, and Borthwick’s in Australia. "The New Zealand meat export industry is being penalised for something it has nothing to do with,” Mr Blomfield said.