Mr Douglas points to productivity goals

Press, 13 December 1986, Page 10

Mr Douglas points to productivity goals

PA Wellington The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, wants trade unions to be more assertive with management in pursuit of high productivity goals.

“I want to see a union with the guts to say ‘What do we have to do with this outfit to increase productivity enough to get a 30 per cent rise in our wages?’,” he told an Ohariu Labour Party electorate meeting on Thursday evening. On the other side of the ledger, Mr Douglas said, he wanted to see a company with the guts to say to workers: “Right. Here’s

a productivity package with really solid rewards for you. Can we sit down and talk it through?”

The time had come for the trade unioA movement, like a lot of other people in every walk of life — managers, manufacturers, farmers, the lot — “to get off the back foot, stop trying to protect entrenched privileges and make a bigger, better contribution to the future.” The reality of the economic situation was that it had taken 30 years to make the mess. Fixing it would take time.

“The later you start the harder it gets,” he said. In the quarter century

to 1984 the average annual increase in productivity was 1.2 per cent — the lowest of 24 O.E.C.D. ■ countries. By comparison, Japan averaged 5.8 per cent, nearly five times better. While blaming management and unions equally for the slow collapse, Mr Douglas singled unions for particular mention. If the objective of the unions was higher living standards for working people, the answer of the progress made in the last 30 years was plain, “They failed to achieve it. The strategy they adopted simply didn’t work. They have to think again.”