Anti-P.S.A. bill poised

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 3

Anti-P.S.A. bill poised

Parliamentary reporter

The Government moved yesterday to strip the Public Service Association of its union rights. The Public Service Association Withdrawal of Recognition Bill was given a first reading and sent to the Labour and Education Select Committee by a vote of 38 in favour and 36 against. However, the Government said that it would not proceed if the P.S.A. axed its plans to hold stoppages at electricity power stations.

The bill was introduced to the House yesterday after the P.S.A. refused to back down on its planned industrial action after an ultimatum given by the Minister of State Services, Mr Thomson, on Friday.

A letter arrived several minutes after the 9.30 a.m. ultimatum yesterday from the general secretary of the P.S.A., Mr W. E. Tucker, saying the association would still proceed, but that the action would be on a smaller scale.

Instead of two-hour stoppages at all power stations over four days, stoppages would last only one hour. That would cut the drop in potential generating capacity from 25 per cent to 12.5 per cent. Mr Thomson told Parliament yesterday that the P.S.A. had a long week-end to think soberly about its future. If it took action as planned on Tuesday, the bill would be brought back from the select committee and given “urgency.” In a noisy and fast-mov-ing debate in Parliament yesterday the Government s.aid it would not permit the electricity supply to be used as an industrial weapon.

The Opposition said that the action was legal, and carefully timed to avoid peak consumption periods. Opening the debate for the Opposition, the spokesperson on State Services, Ms Fran Wilde (Lab.,' Wellington Central), said that there would be “no disruption whatsoever of power supplies to domestic or industrial consumers. Skilled staff would remain on station to deal with exceptional circumstances. The south-north transmission over the Cook Strait cable would not be affected. The Tiwai aluminium smelter supply had been guaranteed.

“No other employer has the power to smash a union if it disagrees with it,” she said.

“The Minister of Labour has held the P.S.A. up as a shining example of voluntary unionism, but now the Government is getting rid of it in a petulant display of arrogance.” Mr Thomson said the P.S.A. had had ample opportunity to discuss pay-fixing proposals with the Government in the last 10 months, but had chosen not to. Now the P.S.A. was threatening to disrupt an essential community service in a bid to coerce the Government on pay-fixing legislation, he said. “It is the Government’s responsibility to manage the operation of the electricity system and that responsibility does not include bargaining with the P.S.A. over how much of the system is going

to be made available by P.S.A. members.”

The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, said the former Labour Prime Minister, Mr Norman Kirk, had introduced legislation in 1974 to deregister harbour pilots in reaction to planned industrial action. The Government was not trying to stop industrial action by State employees, he said. “Industrial action has been taken by the P.S.A. and other unions in recent days without any action by the Government whatsoever. “This bill is about a threat to use as an industrial weapon the power supply to the nation. It is not about whether there will be interference with the power supply — and the P.S.A. has not said there will not be.”

But the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Lange, said that there would be a loss only in potential generating capacity, not in power supply. The Electricity Division of the Ministry of Energy had acknowledged that, he said.

The P.S.A. had obeyed the law. It had given 14 days notice of industrial action in an essential industry. “But the response of the Minister of State Services is to bring in a bill to deregister it. When State workers obey the rules they get wiped out.” The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, said that a loss of 12.5 per cent generating capacity in a 4000 MW system was about 500 MW, the capacity of the New Plymouth power station. “The P.S.A. by its action is taking over the management of the New Zealand electricity system and telling the Division how to run it. This is totally unacceptable to the Government,” he said.

“They will take control of electricity generation out of the hands of professionals, and by so doing put consumers at risk.”

Mr S. J. Rodger (Lab., Dunedin North) said the Government had “flipped its lid.” Deregistration would lead to wildcat action, and fragmented unions all wanting negotiating rights with employers. “The P.S.A. has 7000 members, and 5000 in the electricity industry. About 1000 are involved in the planned industrial action. For the sake of that small group the Government is going to crush the lot,” he said.

The Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, said the P.S.A. had refused to see the Minister of State Services yesterday morning, but had instead delivered a letter. “From my experience in handling disputes, a union that is in earnest about negotiating a way out, wants to see the Minister. The P.S.A. is not serious about finding another way

out," he said. Mr Peter Neilson (Lab., Mirimar) said a safety margin was built in to generating capacity, and this would ensure consumers would be protected. Unions were given powers to take industrial action, but the Government was saying to the P.S.A.: Don’t act like a union.

Mr lan McLean (Nat.. Tarawera) said that safety margins and assurances

that supply would not be affected would amount to nothing if one of the Cook Strait cables suddenly failed.

If an emergency developed, “industrial saboteurs” would not be able to continue supplies to babies in incubators, he said. Mr P. B. Goff (Lab., Roskill) said the Government was asking for far stronger action from all P.S.A. members by provoking them with the bill. The Minister of Works, Mr Friedlander, said the P.S.A. was one of the best civil service unions in the world, but it had been led astray by militant leaders.

Mr N. P. Jones (Nat., Invercargill) said that he attended a recent meeting of 600 P.S.A. workers in his electorate protesting over -the wage-fixing bill now before a select committee. A resolution was passed condemning the Government for “high-handedness,” and all of those present were enjoyed to write to their local M.P., he said. “From 800 people I got nine cables and two letters,” he said. “They don’t even know what it is, the (wagefixing) bill, but they're taking action about it.” Mr F. D. O’Flynn (Lab., Island Bay) said that in 1979

when industrial action was planned by the P.S.A. that would have reduced power capacity by 50 per cent, the Government still said it would only deregister “if serious loss or inconvenience” would result from the action.

Now the Government was deregistering when no interruptions to power supply were remotely likely. In reply, Mr Thomson said that the P.S.A. was a non-political service, but that its leaders were "cuddling up” to the Federation of Labour wanting affiliation, and the F.O.L. was Communist dominated.