Site deal at Clyde a possibility

Press, 28 September 1982, Page 1

Site deal at Clyde a possibility

Parliamentary reporter

A site agreement may be permitted on the Clyde dam site, said the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, yesterday. However, he reiterated that the Government would “certainly not agree” to construction workers’ claims, “or anything like it."

Construction unions have given the Government and dam contractor 14 days to agree to pay wage rates 15 per cent higher than special rates negotiated for the synthetic petrol plant and the Marsden Point refinery expansion. Mr Muldoon dismissed notions that a snap election might be called if construction workers on the Clyde dam refused to begin work until the wage rates were settled. He said he would not answer a question asking if a snap election might be called it workers held out on their claim for a 15 per cent margin. “Who speculated that,” he said. “I would never answer a question like that."

His comments at Whangarei, in which he said he would call an election over disruption at the Marsden Point refinery, if he had to, were made in a quite different context, he said. “There’s no more meat on

that bone. It’s been discussed, rediscussed, ’ hashed and rehashed ever since I said it."

Mr Muldoon said that it seemed to him that workers on the Clyde site were being used by someone in Wellington who was wanting to break the wage-price freeze. “If they allow themselves to be used in that manner they are very foolish." he sail. "They won’t have any jobs."

Part of the justification of the Clyde dam’s going ahead was the provision of jobs for people living permanently in the area. “I don't think for one moment that those people are going to turn around and say they don’t want the job," he said.

Asked if a site agreement was possible, Mr Muldoon said it was, but not on the terms the construction unions were demanding. "The job just couldn't start on terms of that kind." The Government did not plan to take the next step, and he believed the agreement between the Government and the contractors — the West German firm. Ed Zublin. and the partner, Williamson. Christchurch —

would be signed on Thursday as planned.