Union’s $5OO rejoining fee aimed at ‘freeloaders’

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 3

Union’s $5OO rejoining fee aimed at ‘freeloaders’

PA Wellington The Electrical Workers’ Union may charge anyone who leaves the union up to $5OO to rejoin. The entrance fee is revealed in a letter to a union member working at a suburban electrical firm. One of his workmates passed on the letter to the ’’Evening Post” in Wellington.

The letter said, “Electrical and electronic workers who deliberately avoid union membership and at some future date, because

of circumstances surrounding their employment, are required to rejoin the union may be charged an entrance fee of up to $500.” The letter from the union said that the amount would be at the discretion of branch management. The secretary of the Electrical Workers’ Union, Mr Tony Neary, said that the fee was aimed at "freeloaders” — people who deliberately opted out of the union but continued to receive the benefits. It was not aimed at people who left on

grounds of conscience, he said.

The policy of the Canterbury and Westland Stores, Packing, and Warehouse Workers’ Union provides for the payment of back dues and a levy of $250 for workers who resign, then wish to rejoin the union. The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, called the union policy “vicious and vindictive" when he spoke at an election meeting, in Invercargill on Wednesday evening. The policy does not come into effect until July 20.

The union is one of several which have a policy of

charging higher fees or a levy to members covered by the union’s awards who leave the union under the voluntary unionism legisla-i tion, then want to rejoinA The New Zealand Journalists Union goes a step further and has a policy of not accepting former members

back if they have left the union using the voluntary unionism legislation. This is contrary to section 104 of the Industrial Relations Act, as amended last year. The section says that only persons of “general bad character” may be excluded from unions if their work is covered by the union.