N.U.R. may cut links with Labour Party

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 3

N.U.R. may cut links with Labour Party

PA Auckland The 8000-member railway workers’ union is considering disaffiliating from the Labour Party because it is unhappy with the Railways cuts. Delegates at the National Union of Railwaymen’s annual conference next month will discuss whether to sever its 50-year link with the Labour Party. The union secretary, Don Goodfellow, said it was likely they would call for a ballot of all members on the issue. Because the union had 56 branches throughout the country the poll would give a good indication of how the Labour Party would do in this year’s General Election, he

said. The union's national council- has asked the conference to review its affiliation in which members give more than $7OOO a year to the Labour Party. It is unhappy with the Labour Government’s cuts, with the Railways Corporation estimating the loss of jobs for the year to next March at 2700. “On the advice of the national council at the last election we put a lot of work and money into getting the Labour Government into power,” said Mr Goodfellow. “It was done on the policy of the old Labour Party that Railways were a service, not a profitmaking organisation. “That policy changed

after the election and we find ourselves not much better off than before.

“The council is pretty annoyed at the way the Labour Party has treated the union. It feels let down.”

The N.U.R., which is also affiliated to the Federation of Labour and the Combined State Unions, is sticking to its decision from last year’s conference not to join the Council of Trade Unions. It will vote at next month’s conference on a proposal to join a new Transport Federation.

The federation would include the railway workers, watersiders, seamen, cooks and stewards and Wellington storeworkers with a total membership of about 18,000.