Union officials 'new barons’

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 2

Union officials 'new barons’

Parliamentary reporter The “sheep barons” of today are the union leaders driving round the country stirring up the workers, according to the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon. Opening the Wool Board’s new head office in Wellington yesterday, Mr Muldoon said:’ “The almost suicidal short-sightedness of those who bring about serious industrial stoppages affecting the primary industries, which earn the funds to keep secondary industries going, never ceases to amaze me.” Once upon a time, it was the sheep and cattle barons who rode the range roughshod, he said. The barons now were of a different breed, driving round the country stirring up the workers to demand

from their bosses more than the country could afford, he said. If this process succeeded, which it would not, employers would have to tailor their staff numbers to fit their diminished ability to pay higher wages in the present economic climate. Mr Muldoon half-seriously suggested that a sheep rather than a kiwi, should be the national symbol. New Zealand and everyone in it had ridden on the sheep’s back since the early days of European settlement. But he admitted that using the sheep rather than the kiwi would not have appealed to some sports teams. It was certainly not a tag to apply to New Zealanders generally, Mr Muldoon said.