Unions worry German investors

Press, 19 July 1983, Page 3

Unions worry German investors

PA Auckland New Zealand’s Britishstyle trade union movement is causing problems for West Germans wanting to invest here, said the West German Economics Minister, Dr Otto Count Lambsdorff, yesterday. “Wherever I have been there are problems of industrial relations,” Dr Lambsdorff said. “It is not the job of the Government to solve these problems. We (in West Germany) prefer to leave it to the companies on one side and the unions on the other.”

The problems with shipping and on the Clyde dam joint venture were causing concern among German investors, he said. “It is difficult for German businessmen to get along with what they call the British system of labour unions. For instance, in the Federal Republic we have 20. unions with six million members.” German unions had adopted a responsible attitude to wage claims and had voluntarily accepted a real cut in earnings in recent times without the need for a wage freeze. Volun-

tary unionism, also, was favoured by German businessmen, he said. “We have no closed-shop system. We have total voluntary unionism. We do not allow, under union law, anyone being forced to join a union or not being able to get a job without joining a union.” Dr Lambsdorff said German investment in New Zealand remained sluggish and trailed that of Switzerland. “One reason is the enormous distance (between New Zealand and West Ger-

many). There is a lack of information on the possibilities in New Zealand.” The Minister said he had read Mr Muldoon’s proefor a new Brettoni set-up to reform the international monetary system, but regretted the Prime Minister’s use of words, Bretton Woods, because they implied a system based on fixed exchange rates. Mr Muldoon, he said, favoured economic recovery being sponsored by countries such as the United States, West Germany, and

Britain expanding their economies instead of cutting deficits. “None of us is willing to give this up for a straw fire of short-term expansion,” he said. The New Zealand Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Templeton, said New Zealand welcomed West Germany as a valuable trading partner and he praised the efforts of German businessmen in helping set up an expanded Ger-man-New Zealand Trade and Businessmen’s Association.