Strait cable power cut promised if P.S.A. deregistered

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 1

Strait cable power cut promised if P.S.A. deregistered

PA Wellington Power to the North Island will be cut if the Government enacts the bill deregistering the Public Service Association, electricity workers have warned. Their threat was one of several swift reactions around the country to the introduction in Parliament of the P.S.A. Withdrawal of Recognition Bill yesterday. Across the Tasman, the President of the Federation of Labour, Mr W. J. Knox, called on the Government not to proceed with “this fascist-type legislation.” The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, was adamant last evening that the Government would not bend. He said if power supplies were cut, he would use wideranging powers provided for in state-of-emergency legislation.

Mr Muldoon threatened to use the Public Safety Conservation Act last December when a Marsden Point dispute threatened Christmas holiday fuel supplies. The Government has Siven the P.S.A. until Tuesay to reconsider its stance.

The power crisis arose because of Government objections to electricity •workers planning stopwork meetings to protest changes to State pay-fixing methods. The workers had staggered the meetings to cause minimum disruption to power output. Electricity workers at the Benmore and Manapouri projects said they would also cut power to the aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point if the Government’s threat were carried out.

People at Benmore have voted to close the station

down as soon as the bill is enacted, and at a lunch-time meeting yesterday, Manapouri workers said they would cut generation by 10 per cent for each day once the bill is enacted. This would result in no power generation after 10 days. Furthermore the Manapouri workers decided to walk off the job if any electrical worker were arrested.

A full start-up would only be ordered on the restoration of full recognition to the P.S.A.

If the Benmore power station were shut down the North Island would be deprived of one quarter of its present supply, Electricity Division spokesmen said yesterday. The Minister of Energy, Mr Birch, read to the House yesterday a letter from the Dunedin district manager of the Division. It said that workers at the station said they would “shut down the H.V.D.C. (the Cook Strait cable) and all main generation at Benmore, and run all auxiliary generators in a caretaker role,” until the Government restored full recognition.' On the Upper Waitaki project 250 workers walked off the job when they heard the bill had been introduced.

The secretary of the Canterbury region of the P.S.A., Mr J. M. McKenzie, said that about 200 electricity workers belonged to the P.S.A. in the Canterbury area and that there were about 3000 throughout New Zealand.

Their protest stop-work meetings against the Government’s State Services Conditions of Employment

Amendment Bill will start on Tuesday with a one-hour meeting St Coleridge in the morning.

Highbank workers will hold their meeting on Wednesday afternoon, then Tekapo and Cobb workers on Thursday afternoon and Arnold power workers next Friday morning.

Prison officers in Christchurh have decided to refuse escort duties in support of their union, the P.S.A., and pyschiatric nurses at Templeton and Sunnyside will hold stopwork meetings next week. The president of the

P.S.A., Mr Colin Hicks, said the Government’s action had taken the matter beyond the P.S.A.’s control. “We’ll have to wait and see the developments over the next few days ... we must leave this as a matter for the public of New Zealand to judge our actions,” he said, “We are confident that the proud democratic traditions of this country will prevent the Government from abolishing the P.S.A.

“We now ask for public support in our stand. Some freedoms are too precious to abandon,” Mr Hicks said. “We repeat our willingness to refer the disputed pay fixing issues to any kind of independent inquiry or third party scrutiny. We cannot be more reasonable or responsible. “If the Government proceeds to derecognise the P.S.A. in such circumstances it would be an outrage against basic human rights.” Mr Hicks said the right of workers to withdraw their labour was fundamental and

protected by international

covenants. “It is ironic that at a time when the Government is proclaiming voluntary unionism as the magic cure to industrial ills, that same Government should set about disbanding New Zealand’s best known voluntary union.

“What is crystal clear is that the Government is systematically removing all trade union rights in -New Zealand.”

Mr McKenzie said that support for the P.S.A. had never been stronger.

“Some members who resigned over the Springbok tour rejoined today so that they could be a part of any strike for the Jreedom to belong to a voluntary union of their choice,” said Mr McKenzie.

He said that if power workers walked off the job nobody could run the power stations — not even the Army, though the Government might try to mobilise the Army to intimidate power workers, he said.

It was clear that the Government’s ulterior motive was to have a snap election in six to eight weeks. The time was right because the inflation rate was low, unemployment was likely to rise again before Christmas, and the

Labour Party was having internal difficulties, said Mr McKenzie.

The Government might also be trying to break up the P.S.A. so that it could cut the wages of public servants without any organised opposition. The financial situation was such that the Government might well consider such action, said Mr McKenzie. Mr McKenzie said the local committee had asked its members to stay at work yesterday, although many wished to go on strike immediately as a protest against the Government’s action.

The management committee of the Canterbury P.S.A. has called for the suspension of New Zealand’s Government representatives on the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. Mr McKenzie said that the committee had resolved to advise the 1.L.0. of the Government’s threat to deregister the P.S.A.

Throughout the North Island yesterday meat inspectors struck for the day after the introduction of the bill.

Prison officers at Mount Crawford Prison and staff at Porirua Hospital also took industrial action.

Prison officers at Wi Tako, and Radio New Zealand news and current affairs staff held stop-work meetings in support of the P.S.A.

About 40 members of the Wellington Public Trust Office staff sent a telegram to the Minister of State Services, Mr Thomson, demanding that the Government withdraw the bill.

If the bill is enacted, the Public Trustee and Public Trust office staff would administer the funds of the P.S.A. — New Zealand’s biggest union.

On March 31, 1983, the P.S.A. had total assets of $5,747,916.