Opposition bill for Kawerau ‘half-witted’

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 8

Opposition bill for Kawerau ‘half-witted’

PA Wellington The Government yesterday described as “halfwitted” an Opposition proposal to introduce legislation which it says is aiimed at settling the Kawerau mill dispute. The Opposition’s spokesman on labour, Mr Bill Birch, said the bill, which may be put forward on Wednesday, September 17, would provide for a single ballot and a single site agreement for the Tasman Pulp and Paper plant. The $1.5 billion plant was shut down after a two-month dispute between the company and the Northern Federation of Pulp and Paper Workers. But the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, said the move was “just a halfwitted measure to try to capitalise on industrial strife.”

The Government would not support it, he said. A legislatively imposed solution would only be temporary, he said. Mr Birch said his proposal for a single site agreement would prevent small Left-wing groups from damaging industrial relations. “It reduces the ability of a minority on the site to hold' the whole workforce to ransom,” he said. A single site agreement would not create a potential for the pulp and paper workers to take over the entire Kawerau site, with a workforce of 1900 people. “The Pulp and Paper Workers’ Federation is only holding on by a shoestring,” he said. “The underlying mood and conditions among the majority of people in the workforce are for a return to

work on the conditions stipulated by the employers.” The Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mr Gair, said the proposal was not an imposed solution on the workforce. Nor was it intervention. “It is merely facilitating an opportunity for the majority to have their say.” Asked how such a move could be binding on the pulp and paper workers, he said they did not have to go back to work but it would give an opportunity to those who did want to go-

Those who did not agree to the conditions the company had set down for resuming work would be free to look for another job. Mr Gair said he hoped the Government would cooperate with the measure.