S.U.P. ousted from drivers' union

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 12

S.U.P. ousted from drivers' union

PA Wellington Socialist Unity Party influence in the Drivers’ Federation’s top structure was eliminated by elections at its recent annual conference, said the federation’s national councillor, Mr Leo Rolfe. Mr Rolfe said the S.U.P. hold on the management committee of the Combined Unions — drivers, storemen and shop employees — had also been weakened. “The trend shown by secret ballots at the conference was towards replacement of confrontation by negotiation. “I believe that elimination of the S.U.P. influence will mean that negotiation processes will be exhausted in future before direct action is resorted to,” Mr Rolfe said. The federation’s president, Mr Dougal Soper, was originally asked to comment on the conference decisions. He said he would prefer them to come from Mr Rolfe. • Mr Rolfe said that after secret ballots, no S.U.P; member held a senior post in the federation’s management. A prominent Wellington S.U.P. unionist, Mr Jackson Smith, lost his place as fed-

eration vice-president to Mr Peter Liggett, secretarytreasurer of the CanterburyWestland Drivers’ Union. The Otago Drivers’ Union secretary, Mr Brian Read, beat Mr Smith in a ballot for federation representative on the Combined Unions’ management committee, jointly held by the secretary of the Federation of Labour (Mr Ken Douglas). Mr Douglas had also been an appointed substitute for some members on committees of the drivers’ national body. He resigned all posts before the election. “His resignation has removed a major element of S.U.P. influence in the feder-

ation,” Mr Rolfe said. "The biggest problem of the S.U.P. influence that was apparent in our organisation was that it constantly provoked attacks from the Prime Minister and others in the Government. “We constantly found ourselves having to defend our association with the S.U.P. at a time we were pursuing issues, and that removed the real emphasis from what we were attempting to do,” Mr Rolfe said. With the management changes, he expected that many situations which had in the past concerned him and other unions would not be repeated, he said.