Veteran unionist Neary retires

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 4

Veteran unionist Neary retires

PA Wellington The union movement’s biggest challenge over the next decade was to survive, and if he were younger he would stay and face it, says the retiring secretary of the Electrical Workers’ Union, Mr Tony Neary. Mr Neary, who joined the union in 1952 and became its national secretary in 1954, finishes work today. He was awarded the C.M.G. last year. Mr Neary said he did not approve of the general approach being taken by unions to this year’s wage round, and though his union had not yet filed a claim it would be considerably higher than claims already lodged. “Workers’ purchasing power had to be maintained otherwise even more jobs would be lost,” he said.

The union president, Mr Cyril Lynch, said Mr Neary was a dinosaur of a trade union leader who had given great leadership skills to the union. The hard work he had put into the union had

inevitably taken a toll of his health, however, and he had twice had heart surgery. Mr Joe Richardson, formerly of the Plumbers’ Union but recently appointed assistant secretary of the Wellington Electrical Workers’ Union, has been elected Mr Neary’s successor. “Tony has always said that our business as a union is to put top dollars' into our members’ pockets while maintaining a union free of political interference or infiltration by a subversive group,” Mr Lynch said. Mr Neary said he and his wife, Joan, would take some time out to travel and later he would probably write another book on the union movement. An account of his years in New Zealand unions has already been published.