F.O.L. ‘posing as govt’

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 1

F.O.L. ‘posing as govt’

PA Wellington The Federation of Labour was increasingly posing as a type of unofficial government, said Mr S. W. B. Duncan, president of the Employers’ Federation, yesterday. "The F.O.L.'s continuing ban on trade with Chile flies in the face of all the main political parties and appears to go completely against public opinions as well,” he said. "Clearly the F.O.L.'s abuse of power is totally unreasonable and of great cost to the country — in lost jobs and lost overseas earnings,” he said. “The trade ban, and several other matters, raise the question of trade union ac-

countability. The F.O.L. is accountable only in a loose sense to individual union membership — nobody else — yet it makes decisions which affect every New’ Zealander. “The only other group in New Zealand that can do the same is the elected government of the time, and if we do not like what it does we can vote it out. But we cannot do this with the union movement,” Mr Duncan said. “New Zealand cannot afford to have a group such as the F.O.L. trying to run the country from its own narrow perspective. It is too big and too powerful to act like some small pressure group. It must learn to act in the best interests of the country.”