Whither the FoL?

When the Cabinet decision to cut the award settlement was announced, Jim Knox, President of the FoL, was in Australia. To the great surprise of many, he stayed there. So because the mountain didn't come to Mohamed, Mohamed Douglas (Secretary, FoL), and Mohamed Boomer (Vice-President, FoL) went to the mountain. The FoL's decision to send its three top men out of the country when, according to the Evening Post "storm clouds were massing along the country's industrial front", has been explained away in some quarters as perfectly acceptable because Knox's speaking engagement was long standing and could not be broken.

Stranger still, it took Knox two days to make a statement on the issue. Way back on August 6th, the FOL held a special conference to discuss the Remuneration Act. The resolution passed at that conference has been widely quoted by Knox and other trade union leaders as empowering the FoL executive to take whatever action was necessary if the Remuneration Act was used. So when the Act was used, what happened? The President of the FoL refused to comment until he was 'fully briefed". Not even an initial statement of condemnation!

Meanwhile, a number of unions were calling for a nationwide strike. The freezing workers' award discussions broke off as a direct result of the Government's actions, threatening the beginning of the killing season in mid-October. And strangest of [unclear: all], when Knox finally did have something to say, it was to tell us that the FoL's position would be one "of firm action, but it won't be one of head-on confrontation with the Government."

Basically, the Government brought in a law that cut the ground from under the unions' feet, the FoL made noises about opposing it, and then when it was used the FoL President gave the Government an assurance that it wasn't going to fight. Even the drivers' employers' President recognised what the Government was doing to the Unions! When Muldoon says he doesn't think Knox will kick up much of a fuss, it seems he knows what he is talking about.

I have described Knox's actions as strange. But are they? From the point of view of defending the interests of FoL members they certainly are. But is that what the FoL leadership is really committed to? Does it really have the will and the ability to respond to the Government's anti-worker laws with conviction and strength? It has sold the workers out many times before. Knox and his executive meet today (Monday). Will they sell the workers out again?

Kathy Jamieson