Mr Rodger blamed for strike’s length

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 9

Mr Rodger blamed for strike’s length

Much of the blame for the length of the meat workers’ dispute must rest with the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, said the Opposition spokesman on labour, Mr Bill Birch, in Christchurch yesterday. Mr Birch condemned what he saw as Mr Rodger’s failure to step into the seven-week dispute, saying that a National Government would have intervened to get the parties together much earlier. The Government’s failure to resolve the dispute quickly had cost New Zealand $2OO million in lost export orders he said. Wage losses among meat workers would take more than two years to make up and farmers had suffered serious cash-flow disruption. Because the meat industry was essential in the

New Zealand economy, the Government’s ineptitude and indifference were inexcusable, Mr Birch said. The Government’s inaction would not have been so bad if the dispute had caused losses only to the workers and employers directly involved. “Mr Rodger did not have to take sides but he should have made it clear to both parties that the producers could not afford a high wage settlement. But for six weeks the Government did nothing,” Mr Birch said. Even the Government finally questioned the performance of Mr Rodger by bringing in his Cabinet colleagues to take action in the dispute. Although Mr Rodger was overseas at the time, this still amounted to a vote of noconfidence in him by his

colleagues, Mr Birch said. He suggested that another reason for the Government’s inactivity was that it could not support a high settlement, but also found it difficult to resist the trade unions. A National Government would introduce more flexibility into wage-bar-gaining by moving from the system of centralised unions to individual plant unions, Mr Birch said. “We would have allowed the Southland meat workers, for example, to do what they were keen to do and make their own settlement.” Such a move would be resisted by union leaders in Wellington, but welcomed by unionists in the regions who would be able to negotiate direct with their employers, Mr Birch said.