‘Mafia tactics’ rejected by boilermakers

Press, 8 May 1982, Page 3

‘Mafia tactics’ rejected by boilermakers

Wellington reporter The president of the Boilermakers’ Federation, Mr J. Findlay, at the Federation of Labour’s annual conference yesterday, rejected a “diatribe” alleging Mafia tactics by the Wellington Boilermakers’ Society. The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr W. J. Knox, refused debate on the charges, levelled by a delegate, Mr A. G. Morton, the previous day, saying that the matter should be left in the hands of the police who were deciding if charges should be laid. But Mr Findlay yesterday sought, and was granted, a right of reply to defend the Boilermakers’ Federation, which he said had a record on behalf of its members second to none. The special auditor’s report on the financial affairs of the society had found evidence of sloppy bookkeeping practice, and its findings had been endorsed by federation and society members at a special meeting with the heads of the Federation of Labour, Mr Findlay said. Mr Findlay asked that Mr Morton’s comments be expunged from the conference minutes because they were out of order. The conference voted that Mr Morton’s comments be expunged from the record, and Mr Knox refused further debate. Policy-making powers of delegates at F.O.L. conferences were being stripped away and given to a select few, a delegate asserted yesterday. The general secretary of the Electrical Workers’ Union, Mr A. J. Neary, said the report of. the F.O.L. secretary, Mr K. G. Douglas, was becoming a policy statement. “Mark my words, delegates,” Mr Neary said, “before very long there will be no remits at all. It will all be contained in the report, and policy will be determined by a select few. “We are the policy-making body, and our only opportunity to have our decisions debated is to send them in as remits. That policy is going to die,” Mr Neary said. He was referring to time left for discussion of remits and a statement by Mr Douglas on Thursday, in answer to a question, that the report of the national executive was, to a degree, a policy statement. Mr Neary said the conference had 100 remits to debate, but on the final day of the four-day conference, it was still on the executive’s report. In the time left to him, he would be unable to present fully his remit, he said. Mr Douglas’s statement that the executive’s report was in a measure a policy document, was a retrograde step. Mr Knox said Mr Neary’s charges were “not worth listening to.” He was disturbed someone would “bend so low” as to say the national

executive was pushing policy through the annual report and denying workers their democratic right to frame policy through remits. “I am not part of any small select- group, if there is one. That is a grave allegation against the leadership. There will be no cutting down on remits.” Mr Neary was incorrect in saying the executive’s report was the report of the secretary, Mr Knox said. Mr Douglas had glossed over sections in the report because they were the subject of policy-making remits, he said. Mr Knox said he realised remits still had to be introduced and discussed, but he had permitted a four-hour debate on the wage-tax trade-off so that he could not be accused of stifling debate. Mr Douglas had said that the executive report was a policy document inasmuch as it reported on the last year's events in a manner consistant with F.O.L. policy. Strike fund A move to set up a strike fund to finance strikes over a minimum living * wage was firmly put down by the secretary of the Meat Workers’ Union, Mr A. J. Kennedy. Mr R. G. Trott (Harbour Board Employees) said the F.O.L should build up a strike fund so that unions could safely “pick off’ several large and influential employers, when moves toward a minimum living wage failed. “We will make them yield after a bit of Kinleith pressure,” he said. Mr Kennedy said the first thing the Government “grabbed” was a strike fund. New industrial legislation empowered it to fine unions heavily, and bank accounts could be frozen. Mr Trott was.“the last one to talk,” Mr Kennedy said. “He was the one telling workers on breadline wages at Oringi that they should not join our union. Poland Delegates agreed yesterday that the Polish Government was not under Russian orders when it imposed military control in December last year. The conference, in passing remits condemning military repression of Solidarity, “and other workers for human rights in Poland,” deleted reference in one. remit to the Polish Government’s “acting under direction from the Soviet Union,” in its clampdown. It deleted a call for a national day of protest against repression of the Polish trade union movement, but agreed to “commend” Solidarity for its “struggle” for a free trade union, rather than “salute” it — the words of the original remit. In an address to the conference, one of two delegates from the Russian All-Union Central Committee of Trade Unions, the secretary, Mr K. Y. Matskyvichus, said Soviet trade unions firmly supported “the determination of the Polish people to run their affairs without foreign interference.” Maori land

The F.O.L. added its weight to “Maori land rights struggles,” yesterday. It passed a remit by the Northern Drivers’ Union asking for more. support, and publications on the “real character and purpose” of the. Treaty of Waitangi. The conference asked its Maori and Pacific Islanders Advisory Committee to make submissions to the executive for discussion at next year’s conference.

Mr Russell Hurst (left), son of the chairman of the Lincoln College Council, Mr S. M. Hurst, (right), was one of 35 graduands who received the diploma in farm management at the college’s graduation ceremony yesterday. Mr Hurst, sen. farms sheep and cattle on a 400 ha property at Awamoko, in the Waitaki Valley, north-west of Oamaru. His son will work on the farm and help to introduce dairying. During the last 10 years, the farm has been progressively developed with border-dyke irrigation which

has provided scope for dairying. Mr Hurst said the dairy industry was not beset with labour problems. The Hursts plan to run 300 dairy cows and will start the changeover this season. A total of 541 graduands received degrees or diplomas at the Lincoln ceremony. The most common was the diploma in agriculture (112 conferred), followed by the diploma in horticulture (86), and the degree of bachelor of agricultural commerce (83). Better educated and informed people were sorely needed to enter farming, Mr

Hurst sen. told the graduands. “With an investment of $1 million to $2 million being a pre-requisite for a farming venture, the emphasis must be on the training necessary to prepare all those involved to grapple with the problems as they arise and to adapt accordingly,” Mr Hurst said. “Although it may be a somewhat long-term process, I believe that education for future farmers is the key to the development of the enormous potential that New Zealand has.” Graduands, pages 22, 23