Party head denies sacking rumour

Press, 11 May 1989, Page 1

Party head denies sacking rumour

By

SUZANNE KEEN

The president of the New Labour Party, Mr Matt McCarten, last evening quashed a rumour that he had been sacked from his job with the Northern Hotel Workers’ Union. “I have not been sacked, I have not resigned and I will be at work tomorrow,” he said from his Auckland home.

Mr McCarten, an organiser of the union, said he had had several calls from people who had heard that he had lost his job. He had also been questioned about the rumour during a tour of worksites yesterday.

The news had reached as far as Wellington and Christchurch. “I have no idea why people think I have been sacked. I think someone has been causing a bit of mischief,” he said. Mr McCarten believes the rumour may have originated in his Auckland office. He said there was some conflict between his position with New Labour and the union, which was affiliated with the traditional Labour Party. However, he said it was “early days yet.” “I have just shrugged the rumour off. I have been in the union a long time and I know what is real and what is imagined.”

Asked if he had considered resigning from the union because of his position with New Labour, Mr McCarten said: “I don’t think they are paying much on the dole.” Mr Tim Arthur the former Sydenham Labour electorate committee chairman, who resigned from that post in support of the Sydenham member of Parliament, Mr Jim Anderton, said he had heard Mr McCarten had been under extreme pressure.

However, he would be surprised if a union sacked someone for belonging to a political party.