Little resistance to rejoining

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 9

Little resistance to rejoining

PA Wellington A union leader said he had encountered little resistance by former members to rejoining the union. Mr Graham Kelly, secretary of the New Zealand Shop Employees’ Union, admitted that many members had left the union when voluntary unionism was introduced.

Mr Kelly said. One effect of voluntary unionism had been that the enforcement of national awards had started to collapse. Mr Kelly said that in the past, under compulsory unionism, about 90 per cent of shopworkers were union members.

The Shop Employees’ Union had been gearing itself up for the last few months to bring people back into the union but he thought it would take up to a year to recover full membership numbers, Mr Kelly said.

He said, however, that non-members were not worried about having to rejoin because the new legislation ended pressure on staff in small shops to become union members.

Many members had left the union not because they were fundamentally opposed to unionism, but because they wanted to avoid paying the membership fee,

Members would be warned of the prospect of voluntary unionism being restored if a National Government was returned at the next election, he said.