Guest labour not wanted

Press, 9 May 1981, Page 2

Guest labour not wanted

PA Wellington A suggestion by Sir James Fletcher that Chinese labour should be imported to work on New Zealand development projects was attacked yesterday by the Labour Party and delegates to the annual conference of the Federation of Labour. The Labour Party’s spokesman on employment, Mr T. K. Burke, said that employing Chinese labour in New Zealand at cheaper rates than normal would be against the interests of New Zealand workers and would be detrimental to developing a skilled and fully employed domestic workforce. He said, “With more than 63,000 presently unemployed or on. relief work and a disturbing drift of skilled labour across the Tasman, that’s one policy of exploitation that we don’t need.” At the F.O.L.’s conference, Mr P. Kelly, of the Wellington Caretakers and Cleaners’ Union, said he was concerned that a company the size of Fletcher Challenge, of which

Sir James is president, was suggesting importing labour. He said, “What I am concerned about is how can we attract people back to New Zealand who have left and how can we set about providing the training skills in this country for New Zealanders and New Zealand workers to do any and all projects that may come now and in the future.” Fletchers’ and other large New Zealand companies did nqt have the interests of New Zealand workers at heart. “They are not only traitors to us, they are traitors to this country.” Mr E. Ball, of the Engineers’ Union, said that Sir James’s suggestion was “far too much to the right for us to be considering it, I believe.” The conference was concerned at the loss of skilled workers through immigration and resolved that “every endeavour be made to attract skilled workers back to New Zealand.”

Sir James’s views: page 26,