Unions join lobby for frigate participation

Press, 21 August 1989, Page 6

Unions join lobby for frigate participation

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

Trade unionists on both sides of the Tasman have joined the lobbying in support of New Zealand participation in the Anzac frigates project. Mr John Halfpenny, the secretary of the 800,000-strong Victorian Trades Hall Council, said the project would bring a huge range of benefits to Australian workers, “and it would be a pity if our friends across the Tasman were denied the same opportunities.”

The trade union movement in Australia had a proud record of involvement in the peace movement, he said. “But peace is also about the ability to protect your country’s independence, and, as unfortunate as it may be, that need requires a defence capability.” It was best that capability was provided by local industries, said Mr Halfpenny. Mr Halfpenny’s statement was distributed in New Zealand by the New Zealand Engineers’ Union, which has already stated its support for the project.

Its backers have said that $9OO million of work could go to New'

Zealand companies if New Zealand joined the project and bought four ships. The Australian Minister of Defence, Mr Beazley, has said that work would largely be rerouted to New South Wales if New Zealand opted out. Mr Halfpenny said that, for the past year or more, he had been working with unions in New Zealand to argue support for the now successful Amecon bid to base the Anzac ship project at the company’s marine engineering facility at Williamstown, Victoria. Part of the preparation had been the negotiation of a world first, union-to-union, Technology and Information Transfer Agreement, between unions in Victoria and New Zealand and those of the Blohm and Voss Shipyard, in Hamburg, the designer of the chosen vessel. The Victorian trade unions also had an agreement with Amecon which would ensure that a substantial amount of work would go to New Zealand. It would create several hundred jobs and help rejuvenate some of New Zealand’s manufacturing industries, Mr Halfpenny said. He added that New Zealand trade unionists could continue to rely on

their Australian colleagues’ support for a nuclear-free and independent Pacific.

The Victorian trade union movement fully supported the New Zealand Government’s policy of keeping out nuclear-armed or powered warships, and would continue to oppose the Australian Government’s attempts to bully New Zealand into abandoning it, said Mr Halfpenny.

Meanwhile, another New Zealand union has spoken out in favour of the project. While not wishing to comment on "the politics of defence strategy,” Mr John Fisher, the general secretary of the Electrical and Electronics Workers’ Union, said the project offered considerable employment and training prospects for the union’s members.

“With upwards of SI79M in electrical and electronic work being involved, there will be a significant and much needed boost to our industries. “Since the removal of protection against imports for the electronics industry, many jobs have been lost and opportunities for training in high technology areas have been severely reduced,” Mr Fisher said.