Civil unrest fear over Southdown

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 4

Civil unrest fear over Southdown

PA Auckland Civil unrest might be the price paid for the closing of the Southdown freezing works.

South Auckland will be) hit hardest by the closing, which has put about 900 men out of work. The chairman of the Auckland Regional Author-) ity’s employment task force committee, Mr Ralph Witten, has said that another) 150 people might lose their jobs because of the decline in business for retailers. “The flow-on effect will be quite catastrophic, - ’ said Mr Witten. “Things have only to get a little bit worse and we will see those sorts of things that happened in the Depression. “People will demonstrate and riot and knock in windows. It is getting to the point where it could well explode — in other words civil unrest — and we have to take heed of that.” The shock of the sudden closing of the works was putting stress on race relations and the social fabric, said Mr Witten. "At two huis I attended recently there were quite harsh things said about the pakeha and his society. “The fact is that an undue proportion of Polynesians and Maoris are unemployed.” Mr Witten sees the easiest solution being to keep Southdown open, and he wants both the A.R.A. and the Government to contribute towards the cost. “We realise there is a need to rationalise the freezing industry because there is an excess capacity m the North Island," he said. ‘But at a time when it is so difficult to create new jobs it makes sense to keep existing jobs going. The excess killing capacity could be wound down while other jobs are phased in.” , If Southdown had not been closed, the A.R.A. would have received about $700,000 in trade waste charges. Mr Witten wants the A.R.A. to put up a similar sum towards keeping the works going. “The Government stands to lose about $5 million in tax from Southdown and another $4.5 million in unemployment benefits it will have to pav out. That $4.5 million could be put towards keeping, the works open and the men in jobs,” Mr Witten said. -A .

In Parliament last evening,

Mr M. J. Minogue (National,'Hamilton West) attacked what he labelled “grossly irresponsible unionism” and predicted that more freezing works would! close because of it. ! Speaking during the) Labour Estimates debate, Mri Minogue said that some basic ground rules were needed to bring sense. Irresponsible unionism was as much a cause of unemployment as anything else. Referring to the Sohthdown closing, he said it was important that the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co-opera-tive could close the works “without the blackmailing tactics of the unions.” “I agree that it is not verv satisfactory at all for 900’people to lose their jobs like that. Neither do I agree that union blackmail of the kind that preceded it is acceptable either.” He then predicted that the Westfield freezing works would close within a year or two and that there would be other closings.

Mr Minogue also criticised “deliberately disruptive tactics” by unions during the construction of the Huntly power station. “I would like someone to tell me the reasons for that.

disruption. That it was deliberate, planned and mindless is obvious. Productivity on the site fell to zero,” he said.

Mr Minogue then spoke about the Cers, Ltd, workers' productivity record.

“In 1980, Cers workers on that site took part in 197 stoppages, 162 stop-work meetings, and 35 strikes. For what? To produce a situation in which they worked a minimum number of hours a week; a scandalously low number of hours a week. “Here again were union tactics blackmailing an employer,” Mr Minogue said. He accused the Labour Partv of being “cowardly in its attitude towards industrial relations” if it did not support the call for more responsible unionism. Mr F. D. O’Flynn (Lab., Island Bay) drew attention to i the problems the GovernIment had in settling the Mangere bridge dispute, a dispute which was going on “like Coronation Street.” He rejected Mr Minogue’s accusations and said that under the kind of capitalism advocated by National there was no right to work. That was the reason the State had to organise the economy.