Unionists left in the dark

In late 1971 the Government dished out a strong lesson to militant opponents in the unions. Taking advantage of public resentment that had been whipped up by politicians and the press against the Seamen's Union, the Government introduced a provocative piece of shipping legislation. It was a forerunner of what was to come, but a cowed F.O.L. and Labour Party again refused to fight and the Seamen were left to fight alone. It is now common knowledge that they were forced into a trap and were accordingly belted. The effect was to drive the F.O.L. into the arms of the Employers' Federation. An F.O.L. subcommittee and Employers Federation officials submitted a draft Industrial Relations Bill to the Government, most of which became the Industrial Relations Bill.

Within the trade union movement the reaction was one of shock. Throughout the negotiations only a select few union leaders knew what was going on, and even after the Bill had been submitted to government some members of the F.O.L. Executive didn't know what was in it. One is known to have telephoned the Employers Federation to obtain a copy. At Trades Council level there were questions about the Bill, but no answers. The draft was a victory for right-wing union leaders. Since the 'Nil Wage Order' in 1968 they had wanted to get their members back into an Arbitration Court system, which entrenched their authority and transferred power out of the hands of the rank and file and back into the hands of the leadership. But even the right-wingers got a shock when they saw the final draft of the Bill. The Government had taken advantage of the weakness of the F.O.L. and included a number of new provisions designed to completely shackle workers.