M.P. talks to union heads

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 6

M.P. talks to union heads

By

CULLEN SMITH

and GLEN PERKINSON The Sydenham Independent member of Parliament, Mr Jim Anderton, and Southern Distribution Workers’ Union executives were guarded about a meeting they attended yesterday. Mr Anderton said he could not comment on the discussion, but he said the union had invited him to meet its executives. It also invited the Labour Party president, Ms Ruth Dyson, who did not attend. “I did not ask to go but I was pleased to go, and we discussed some things; but I cannot comment on any of that,” Mr Anderton said. The secretary of the Southern Distributions Workers’ Union, Mr Paul Piesse, denied that Mr Anderton sought support for a new party during the meeting. “He did not ask us to do

that,” he said. “How can we support something that is yet to be, anyway?” Mr Piesse said the question of the union’s affiliation to the Labour Party was discussed, but with the union about to call a round of stop-work meetings on the issue it was on the meeting’s agenda anyway. Stop-work meetings to discuss affiliation will begin in Oamaru on May 1 and continue from Invercargill to Napier over about two months. “Our members will make the determination as to whether or not this union remains affiliated to the party,” Mr Piesse said. Affiliation was not the only issue on the union’s agenda, he said. “We have other matters of great moment to deal with as well.”