Marsden management arrogant, says F.O.L.

Press, 31 May 1985, Page 19

Marsden management arrogant, says F.O.L.

PA Auckland Marsden Refinery Constructors had displayed overwhelming arrogance towards the inquiry into industrial relations at the Marsden Point refinery expansion and in their industrial relations on the site, the Federation of Labour and three unions have said. On the last day of the inquiry, Mr John Haigh, representing the F.0.L., and the Labourers’, Northern Drivers, and Storepersons

and Packers’ unions, attacked the "astonishing contrast” between the consor-

tium’s attitudes and the unions’ "positive” approach. “M.R.C., throughout this inquiry, have displayed an unmitigated arrogance which almost defies description,” Mr Haigh told the committee, Dr Martyn Finlay, Q.C. The consortium had tried to convince the public its conduct had been beyond reproach and had unashamedly pushed all blame or fault for events at Marsden Point during the past four years away from itself and its management staff, Mr Haigh said. The consortium had

blamed the F.0.L., a few unnamed “militant” unionists and “militant minority” of the site workforce for any event which could even slightly be termed an industrial relations problem.

Mr Haigh said that the consortium’s evidence painted a false picture of industrial relations on the refinery expansion site and demonstrated that MRC, the individual companies making it up, and senior management, had a vested interest in perpetrating a gigantic whitewash.