Unions ‘can still sting’

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 28

Unions ‘can still sting’

PA Wellington Trade unions were not losing their sting, the Federation of Labour’s president, Mr Jim Knox, said yesterday. This response was prompted by a question about bus drivers and journalists returning to work after strikes which did not attain their objectives. Mr Knox said it was a matter for the unions themselves to make a decision on a return to work.

The bus drivers’ dispute had not yet been settled. “There could be another approach in the New Year to achieve their ?32 claim,” he said. Asked if there was a new resolve among employers to resist union claims, Mr Knox said some might consider that now was the time for a more determined stand. “The trade union movement is now better organised to go for claims they should receive because of the three-year wage freeze under the Muldoon Government.

"The employer had no freeze on profits and dividends,” Mr Knox said.

He was disturbed about reports that a Christchurch company was going to Hong Kong to manufacture be-

cause wages were lower there.

He hoped this was not the start of a trend which would be held over the heads of workers. •

Mr Knox dismissed claims that higher wages created unemployment. “During the freeze, unemployment went up and up.” Unemployment was not the fault of the workers. “Wage increases on their own do not cause inflation,” he said. Unions were more frequently seeking advice and assistance in disputes from the F.O.L.

The Employers’ Federation director of advocacy, Mr Steve Marshall, said employers were looking more closely at the ramifications of accepting union claims, rather than floating along, as some had done in the past, protected from their pain because they knew Government economic policies helped recover costs.

There was now a tightening up of the money supply, and a freeing up of the economy for competition. Industrial relations were recognised as an integral part of the economy. Decisions on industrial relations were seen to be as important as decisions on investment, Mr Marshall said.