THE PRESS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1988. Power: political and electric

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 12

THE PRESS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1988. Power: political and electric

Even in today’s climate of industrial disruption, the beginning of strike action by electricity workers yesterday came as a jolt to a large section of the community. Strikes and stoppages always have victims apart from those immediately embroiled in them. Employers lose trade and income; workers lose wages; and inevitably customers and clients are also put at a disadvantage. When industrial action disrupts such a universal and vital service as the supply of electricity, almost everyone in the community is inconvenienced or suffers some loss. Some will be seriously put out. So it proved in Christchurch and outlying rural areas yesterday, and the public did not suffer in good humour. The annoyance and anger generated by the power cuts seemed to be mainly channelled through radio talk-back programmes or misdirected to the telephone switchboards of local power supply authorities. Such demonstrations might enable people to let off steam; on their own they will achieve little else. Neither Electricorp nor the Public Service Association, which represents the electrical workers, is likely to be much moved by these public complaints. Nor is the association likely to be embarrassed by public reaction to the news that Electricorp production workers on whose behalf it is seeking wage increases of up to 9 per cent already have average earnings of $37,000, well above the earnings of most of the people hurt by the power cuts. From the outset, the electrical workers and their union must have been only too well aware that the extensive disruptions they have embarked on can win them no friends. Disruption and protest against it are part of the fire-power in a strike. Concern about public reaction has not been enough to dissuade the electrical workers from strikes in the past. The disruption 13 months ago, when Electricorp was pruning back staff numbers, will be recalled. Unfortunately for South Island consumers who were worst hit by yesterday’s action, South Islanders are still in the minority; the North Island escaped the worst yesterday. This is scheduled to change next Wednesday when electricity supplies are to be cut over most of the country and for much longer periods — up to eight hours has been mentioned.

The lives of hundreds of thousands of people will be. upset in some way by such a colossal reduction in the supply of power and the sense of annoyance will increase. The Government can hardly ignore the disruption that will occur in all manner of basic essential services — sewage pumping and water supplies to name just two — though

some of these will have emergency power supplies.

Because the production and supply of electricity is an essential industry under the terms of the Labour Relations Act, the Government, through the Minister of Labour, has the power to order the parties in the present dispute to attend before a conciliator or mediator, or to submit to the Labour Court, or to a Ministerial conference. In the two latter courses, the decision of the court or of the conference is binding on all parties.

If the Government allows matters to deteriorate to the extent threatened for next Wednesday, it must expect a critical public backlash, transferring much of the antagonism towards the Government itself. The Government likes to pretend that Electricorp, like other State-owned corporations, has a responsibility to its owners and clients. The Government, as the public’s shareholder in Electricorp and as the guardian of public interest nominated by the Labour Relations Act, should not avoid its own duties. The law, created by the Government itself, contains special provisions relating to electricity and other essential services precisely to safeguard the public from this sort of disruption. The Government has the responsibility, and should have the mettle to do its job.

It will be encouraged to do so if the community’s displeasure at the power cuts is directed to the only agency able to go in to bat for the public: the Government.' Last year, the Government jibbed at “creating resentment” among electrical workers by taking a stand in the redundancy dispute; this year it risks incurring the justified resentment of the whole community if it does not take a stand for the continued supply of electricity. This does not mean an unfair resolution of the pay dispute; it simply means a resolution without unjustifiable personal and economic pain. It does not even mean that the Government has to depart from its general policy of keeping out of labour disputes. The Government is in the middle of this one, first because the State is the shareholder and,. second, because the law says it should be. The evidence is now there to show that disruption is real — not just a threat. The Government cannot excuse itself from acting because Electricorp has acted as it has: the corporation, created by the Government, has done exactly what the Government must have expected it to do in reviewing jobs and assessing pay rates. In being ready to use public inconvenience and economic loss as an industrial weapon, the union will not be surprised if these are translated into political action.