Pilot accuses P.M. of diverting row

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 8

Pilot accuses P.M. of diverting row

PA Auckland Comments by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, that

Air New Zealand pilots were resorting to “gangsterism” in their pay claim did nothing to help

the dispute, said a pilots’ spokesman, Captain Jerry Rees-Webbe, last evening. “If anyone is a gangster it is the politicians who gladly accepted their pay rises last year,” he said. Captain Rees-Webbe said Mr Lange had adopted Sir Robert Muldoon’s habit of disparaging the pilots. Sir Robert had called them “psychotic misfits."

Mr Lange’s remarks served only to divert the row from the “real issues,” Captain ReesWebbe said.

Pay was one element,' but the wider matters concerned relentless pressure on Air New Zealand to compete and improve efficiency and at the same time embrace an “open skies” policy. Moves towards deregulation by Air New Zealand had caused problems with all its unions, he said. It had become clear that deregulating for commercial expediency raised safety problems. These broader issues were at the core of the pilots’ dispute, he said. Airline management and now Mr Lange insisted however, on masking it as a pay row. Talks aimed at breaking the two-week-old airline kitchen staff dispute broke up yesterday without success. About 300 kitchen staff are on strike in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.