Unionism 'perverted5

Press, 16 June 1983, Page 6

Unionism 'perverted 5

PA Wellington Compulsory unionism had gone too far in New Zealand but neither of the two main political parties were prepared to do anything about it, Social Credit’s deputy leader, Mr G. A. Knapp has said. “The National Party, despite explicit promises in its manifestos year after year, has done nothing,” he said, in an address to a Social Credit meeting at Kaipara. “The Labour Party, with its own hand in the pockets

of tens of thousands of press-ganged union supporters, has a vested interest in the status quo.” Only Social Credit had the “guts and the gumption” to do something to bring about true industrial democracy, Mr Knapp said. “Compulsion — the legal requirement that individual people join a union — does not and cannot have a permanent place in a free society,” he said. Its original purpose, to protect workers from

unscrupulous employers, was no longer necessary and had in too many cases “been perverted by trade union empire builders and those who seek to further their own political ends.” Compulsory unionism had gone well beyond its proper purpose when trade unions, by denying membership, could cost people their jobs. He described union leaders as “little tin generals sitting on top of their little union empires and bureaucracies. ”