Non-unionists awards ‘crazy’

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 4

Non-unionists awards ‘crazy’

PA Wellington The idea of non-unionists negotiating awards for themselves was “simply nuts,” the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Lange, said yesterday. He said employers knew the idea, aired by the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, was “crazy.” “They are appalled at the idea of having so-called award negotiations with as many people as want to put their pitch in,” Mr Lange said. He also said a Labour Government would continue award coverage for nonunion members. “A Labour Government is never going to let the weak, the defenceless, the impotent minority, simply be taken to the cleaners by an employer and we will have those coverages for them.” Mr Bolger said this week that industrial law could be left as it was, where all workers were covered by an award regardless of whether they were union members. But criticism of this approach mostly produced by the Labour Party was that non-union members were “free-loaders,” the Minister said in a speech. If concern about freeloaders was a big issue, an alternative was “to restrict union-negotiated awards to cover only union members and provide for non-union

members to negotiate on their own behalf,” Mr Bolger said. Mr Lange told a press conference that Mr Bolger’s comments were “completely provocative and utterly mischievous.” He said it left him wondering whether the Government had any desire to reach accord with unions and employers on long-term wage fixing proposals. “It is so close to when the next talks are going to be held (next week) that you can only see this latest outburst as designed to remove forever the chance of a settled deal, then lay the way open for the Government to go and legislate heavy-handedly on wage-fix-ing, possibly with union unrest,” he said. Asked whether he supported the view that nonunionists getting the benefit of union awards were freeloaders, Mr Lange replied, “Of course they’re free-load-ers.” A Labour Government would have a form of unqualified preference, after ballots. Mr Bolger also said in the speech that plant and industry unions should be provided for in law. Mr Lange said Labour’s manifesto "leads us into a greater degree of investigation and testing of that.” The party had undertaken to consult with unions and employers on plant unions.