Union wage claim ‘utter nonsense’

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 1

Union wage claim ‘utter nonsense’

PA Dunedin The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, has described a union claim for special wage rates by construction workers as utter nonsense. “The ' Government certainly is not going to agree to it," he said in Dunedin on Saturday.

Construction - unions have given the Clyde dam contractor and the Government notice that no work will start on the dam unless all workers get 15 per cent more than the special wage rates paid to workers on the synthetic petrol plant at Motonui and the Marsden Point refinery extensions;

The unions also want a number of other conditions, including provision of clothing, safety equipment, and suitable accommodation. , If these claims are not agreed to by October 9 "no work will commence on this project," the unions have said.

Mr Muldoon accused trade union organisers of being responsible for the action, "not the rank-and-file members who want the jobs.”

Part of the reason for the Government's decision to go

ahead with the project is to keep those people employed who want to stay, he explained. “All those people need jobs. They should tell the F.O.L. to pull its head in.” If they did refuse to work, they would be voluntarily out of work and would not qualify for the unemployment benefit, Mr Muldoon said.

When asked who would replace them, he said: “Anybody who wants the job can have it at the appropriate wage.” Other men had been working at Clyde for normal wages, and so there was no reason for any change, he said.

“The F.O.L. is trying to break the wage freeze. It certainly will not succeed," said Mr Muldoon.

Union demands, page 2