The Lesson to be Learned

But, again in this case, this regulation has backfired. Railway workers other than those members of the NUR who were employed on the Silver Star have also seen that reductions in Government expenditure could very well result in the same thing happening to them. They have seen that support for the Silver Star workers is in their interests, and in the interests of all people who face Government attacks in living standards. Hence the no-confidence motion in the National Council of the NUR from the Wellington branch. And hence the Driver's Union support in the freight-forwarding ban. In this dispute, suspensions will not have the desired effect of destroying the strike; in fact, they appear to be having the effect of prolonging and inflaming the original dispute to disastrous proportions.

The real lesson that can be drawn from this dispute is that the Government will stop passing and enforcing such legislation as the Industrial Relations Amendment Act as soon as all workers realise that to support those who take industrial action is to act in the interests of every worker.