Ballots will not legitimise staff action, savs Minister

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 2

Ballots will not legitimise staff action, savs Minister

Ballots proposed by the Christchurch Press Company, Ltd, and the Journalists Union relating to the ban put on a reporter’s copy would in no way legitimise the industrial action, said the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, yesterday. The ballots would only indicate whether the ban had majority support, he said. Mr Bolger said that under the voluntary unionism legislation introduced this year it was illegal to discriminate against a worker on the ground of that person’s membership or non-mem-bership of a union. “This is the law regard- . less of whether the decision to take industrial action is taken by the majority of workers or by the union representatives,” he said. “I make this point becaitse some people may be under the mistaken impression that by applying to the Arbitration Court to order a secret ballot the company is using the new procedures to resolve this voluntary unionism issue. “The Industrial Relations Amendment Act, 1983, makes it clear that those who believe they have suffered loss or damage as a result of industrial action over union membership issues may take the matter to the Arbitration Court, but that is quite different from applying to the Court to order a secret ballot,” Mr Bolger said. The Timaru reporter of “The Press,” Mr D. W. Hodge, resigned from the union after voluntary unionism legislation came into effect. Members of “The Press” journalists’ chapel then put a black pan on Mr Hodge’s copy. Last week the Christchurch Press Company applied the Arbitration Court to order a secret ballot of union members employed by the newspaper. The company had applied to the Arbitration Court for a secret ballot of Journalists Union members because it believed that their refusal to handle copy submitted by a former member constituted strike action, said the editorial manager of “The Press,” Mr D. D. .Borman, yesterday. Such action should be the subject, one way or the other, of a secret ballot of all members. The company had not been shown that a majority of all union memI bers employed by “The - Press” agreed with the action,” he said. If they did, it would not validate a ban on the resigned union member, which the coippany . regarded as

illegal. “A secret ballot of all members would clarify the attitude of the journalists’ chapel which, as far as the company was aware, rested on the decision of a majority who attended a meeting and not necessarily bn a majority of the whole membership,” Mr Borman said. The Arbitration Court will hear the Press Company’s application in Wellington on April 3 and 4. In response to this application to the Arbitration Court, journalists at “The Press” will hold a secret ballot tomorrow to decide on whether to reaffirm the black ban put on Mr Hodge’s copy. The Christchurch Press Company has agreed to pay travel and accommodation costs for out-of-town members to attend the meeting. Mr Bolger said that “The Press” journalists, by banning the copy of one of their fellow reporters, were being hypocritical. '‘lnvariably, journalists protest loudest if there is any suggestion of a curb on their freedom to report on matters of public interest. On such occasions we hear a great deal about the freedom of the press. Apparently in this case this allimportant principle is subservient to the now Hiegel principle of not working alongside non-union labour,” Mr Bolger said. Mr Bolger denied that the Government was involving itself in the voluntary unionsim dispute at the “The Press” by issuing a statement on the proposed secret ballots to be held by journalists. Mr Bolger said he issued the statement because it was important that those who were seeking a ballot were under no illusion that the result of the ballot in any way affected the legality of a worker’s decision to leave a union. Asked whether his statement indicated that the Government would get involved in the dispute, he said that on all previous occasions he had told the parties and the public that the remedies were available. In his statement, Mr Bolger said there was a provision in the law for those who believed they had suffered loss or damage as a result of industrial action over union membership to take the matter to the Arbitration Court. Asked whether he was suggesting that Mr Hodge, or the company or other workers should use this remedy, Mr Bolger said, “That is the option open to them.”