Our proposal will work — F.O.L.

Press, 28 February 1981, Page 1

Our proposal will work — F.O.L.

Mr Knox said yesterday that he believed the proposal by the F.O.L. would resolve the Auckland dispute, reports the Press Association. -

He said that he would fly to Auckland in a hired plane today to ensure that the Auckland unions understood the stand the F.O.L. was taking and he would be at the Court on Monday to -support the picketers due to appear there.

Mr Muldoon said that he did not know how his Cabinet colleagues wolild react to the proposal by the F.O.L. for talks on amending legislation. He was not prepared to comment on his own reaction to it.

Mr Muldoon said later on television news that he believed Mr Knox had acted moderately during the dispute. He agreed with the interviewer that the flare-up had come

about because of a militant push by Auckland unions.

The F.O.L. had sensed ■ what public opinion was . on the issue and in spite of appearances Mr Knox wanted to - settle . the ' dispute.' '

The executive of the Combined State Unions met yesterday and called for the immediate release of the arrested Auckland picketers and the withdrawal of the trespassing changes against them. • The chairman of the C.S.U., Mr D. H. Thorp, said that the executive had unanimously carried a resolution supporting the right to picket and reaffiring its opposition to the Police Offences Act and other , legislation being used to harass and arrest picketers. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling), said that workers should get back to work and that negotiations should be left

in the hands of the F.O.L.He repeated his call for the six union leaders in Mount Eden Prison to accept bail and for the Government to give an assurance that it would review the law on picketing. “The right to maintain peaceful pickets must be clarified and firmly entrenched in statute,” said Mr Rowling. The Leader of the Social Credit Political League (Mr B. C. Beetham) Said, that the original disputes, one about overtime and conditions at Auckland Airport and the other about an industrial matter at Ravensdown, need not have escalated as they had.

. “The clear need, in order to bring sanity back into the industrial-rela-tions field, is to fully restore, a system of conciliation and arbitration binding on both parties concerned without interference from executive Government,” said Mr Beetham. ?

“However, given that the present crisis has arisen, it is plain that the matter of the prosecutions must be dealt with by the process of the law. If any injustice is involved then the judicial process through the courts should be allowed to identify that injustice. “For the record the leader of the Labour Party should be reminded that the offending part of section 33 of the Police Offences Act was passed and amended to its present form by a Labour govern? ment.” The Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr Laflge) said that Air New Zealand had to re-employ the sacked engineers to allow face-tp-face talking to get under way. ' ’ ;