F.O.L. president warns of industrial chaos

Press, 19 August 1983, Page 4

F.O.L. president warns of industrial chaos

PA Wellington Industrial chaos could result from Government attempts to prohibit stronger unions forming closed shops under proposed voluntary unionism legislation, said the president of the Federation of Labour, Mr W. J. Knox, yesterday. “It will also have employers worried because of the effect it would have on production,” he said. Mr Knox was commenting on a speech by the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. In the speech, Mr Bolger said that voluntary unionism would be implemented in both public and private sectors and that there would be a prohibition on registering any agreement containing a compulsory membership provision. Remedies would be found for employers who found themselves under union pressure to have a closed shop arrangement, said Mr Bolger. Mr Knox said yesterday: "Mr Bolger is talking about use of the law against bona fide trade union officials and organisers.” It had been made clear, said Mr Knox, that union officials would have their right of access to places of work severely restricted. “That means we will have to take unionised members out on to the street to talk to them,” he said. He suspected that the Labour Department would become the negotiator for non-union labour. It did not make sense to introduce this sort of potentially disruptive legislation

at a time when New Zealand was in such a difficult economic position. Mr Knox said' that the F.O.L. national executive would discuss the matter on September 13 and a report would go to the national council in early November. The Employers’ Federation executive director, Mr J. W. Rowe, said yesterday that in opposing voluntary unionism the F.O.L. should be careful not to “queer the pitch” for ratification of the International Labour Organisation Convention 87. Mr Rowe was commenting on Mr Bolger’s remarks in which it was indicated that detailed proposals for ratification of Convention 87 would be taken by him to the caucus shortly.

“We welcome the Government’s support for ratification, but the F.0.L., by opposing one aspect of it, voluntary unionism, is ignoring the fact that ratification would bring major benefits to the labour movement,” said Mr Rowe. “After all, the convention is in effect the charter for trade union rights, but an integral part of it is the right of individuals to decide whether to belong to a trade union. “Similarly, employers can choose freely regarding membership of an employers’ association.” The Employers’ Federation, he said, supported the principle of voluntary unionism conditional on adequate safeguards against possible victimisation of workers and harassment of their employers.

“We share the Minister of Labour’s aversion to closed

shops, but the key issue is how to legislate against them,” he said.

“Consequently, we must reserve our views on this until we see the fine print.” The Auckland Trades Council president, Mr G. H. Andersen, believes that the non-union bargaining organisations proposed by Mr Bolger will be a short wire to industrial disruption. “It won’t come from us, but we’ll react to it of course,” he said.

Mr Bolger has proposed that non-members of unions be allowed to form a bargaining organisation to file claims against employers to negotiate agreements for their members.

At the same time, voluntary collective agreements would continue to be negotiated by existing unions. “It’s a pattern for instant divisiveness, not only among workers but also among employers because of the employers’ costing structure,” said Mr Andersen. “If someone changes from a union to a non-union organisation for bargaining, do they go on to a different wage rate? If they do that will affect an employer’s costing structure. How many employers would want to be faced with that?”

Mr Bolger said that he saw no problems if workers in a firm divided, with some belonging to a union and some to a bargaining society. He doubted that there would be problems with the two groups leap-frogging for higher pay. f ‘Any employer with a brain could handle that,” he said.