Unions silent until F.O.L. meets

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 1

Unions silent until F.O.L. meets

PA Wellington Union leaders have elected to say nothing about the closing of the Gear Meat works at Petone till after today’s meeting of the Federation of Labour national council in Wellington. The president of the F.O.L. (Mr W. J. Knox) said the national secretary- of the Meat. Workers’ Union. Mr A. J. Kennedy, and the union's West Coast branch secretary. Mr K. Findlay, had attended yesterday’s F.O.L. executive meeting. “We are not . handling the matter, but we are prepared to offer advice and assistance, and they have gone away to consider certain things that we have . suggested,” he said, Mr Findlay was accused of Marxist leanings by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) in an election address

in Wellington on Monday evening and he was blamed for leading the Gear workers “down the garden path” and “destroying”, the works by the National member, of Parliament for Pahiatua, Mr J. H. Falloon, in Masterton. Neither Mr Kennedy nor Mr Findlay could be reached last evening. the Petone sub-branch of the union is believed to have called a meeting at the Taita Community Hall at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Accusations continue about who was responsible for the works’ closing and the loss of nearly 800 full-time and seasonal jobs. But the company’s main priority was not to indulge in public back-biting and recriminations, but to try to reduce the effect of the closing ’ on workers, said a spokesman. The company was setting

up employment committees for freezing workers and others and was doing all it could to find jobs, he said. The chairman of the Meat Board. Mr Adam Begg, said the, closing showed the urgent need to lower costs in the meat industry. He called on ' freezing companies and the unions to get together at a national level to find ways of boosting productivity. “My concern is not so much with the individual case, but with the situation facing the industry as a whole,” he said. “The need is now urgent to get both sides together and try to reduce costs and improve productivity to the maximum extent ” ..There was enough new technology available to enable even those older plants, similar to Gear, to. survive if the technology were used, he said. - ..- ’ Earlier comment, page 2