Union leader seeks 10 p.c. wage order

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 4

Union leader seeks 10 p.c. wage order

PA Wellington A prominent Wellington trade unionist, Mr A. J. Neary, advocates the need for a 10 per cent general wage order in contrast to the 1 per cent suggested by the executive director of the Employers’ Federation, Mr J. W. Rowe. Since the freeze began on June 22,1982, Mr Neary, the secretary of the Electrical - Workers’ Union, consistently said a general wage order would provide the tidiest means of emerging from it. “The movement in the consumers’ price index since the freeze began justifies a 10 per cent increase,”

Mr Neary said. He described Mr Rowe’s 1 per cent suggestion as totally unrealistic. It would satisfy no-one. Since announcing the Federation of Labour’s intention to seek a general wage order at the plenary wage talk session involving the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, on March 14, the F.O.L.’s president, Mr W. J. Knox, has declined to comment on the percentage increase the union movement would seek. The chairman of the Combined State Unions, Mr Ron Burgess, yesterday dismissed a claim by the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger,

that the C.S.U. prodded the F.O.L. into advocating an April 1 general wage order in preference to a limited wage bargaining round. Mr Burgess said all decisions on a post-freeze arrangement had been made after full consultation between the F.O.L. and the C.S.U.

The C.S.U. discussed the matter fully at its quarterly meeting in December and decided to support the concept of a limited wage round for 1984, he said. He said the shift to a demand for an immediate wage increase and an end to the freeze was not an aboutface.