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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Special General Strike Issue. September 24 1979

General Strike: The Lead Up

General Strike: The Lead Up

When the Remuneration Act was introduced, the FoL held a special conference. The decision of that conference was to empower the FoL National Executive to call for nationwide action if the Act was used. Nothing was specified, but the clear intention of delegates was that if the trade union movement didn't fight this law it might as well pack up and go home.

Then the Drivers' dispute, three and a half months in the running, came to an end. Agreement was reached on a new award that would give drivers' an 11% increase, plus the 4.5% general wage order and some other concessions. Word of the proposed settlement came out before it was finally resolved, and Muldoon threatened to use the Remuneration Act if the 11 % was granted.

The Government joined with the Employers Federation in vying to produce the "definitive" set of figures that would prove that the drivers were getting between 17% and 25%. The top end of this range included overtime calculations. That really got the drivers: for one thing many drivers don't work overtime; for another, this country is supposed to operate on the principle of a 40 hour week. That principle was won 139 years ago. Wage settlements have never been calculated on an "overtime included" basis and it is patent nonsense that they should do so now. The Government and Employers Federation soon dropped that part of their calculations.

At the low end, which included all the other agreements as well as the basic award rate, the figure doesn't quite match up to the rising cost of living. Unacceptably high, said Muldoon. When journalists pointed out that MPs had received 17% themselves, he claimed the circumstances were entirely different, because MPs didn't go on strike.

With that he exposed another aspect of the attack on trade unions. Workers have only one weapon in their struggle to gain decent working standards: the right to withdraw their labour. They can't sack their bosses, they can't close down the factory and open up somewhere else, they can't import new technology to make bosses redundant and they can't hold unemployment over the bosses heads to make them accept the workers' demands. A strike is also a legitimate form of protest because no-one can have the right to force others to continue working for them regardless of the conditions of that work.

One for all

The Drivers' award is important because it will have a trend-setting effect for many other unions. This particular sector of the working class fought long and hard to get a decent award, not just for themselves, but for thousands of other workers as well. When the Government responded to the settlement by stating it would use the Remuneration Act, the reply from unionists was immediate.

They recognised that this attack represented not only an attempt to split the ranks of the working class, but was also a two-fold attack on all unions. If the Government was to succeed with the drivers, all the other workers who might have benefited from their settlement would lose out. Furthermore, if the Remuneration Act could be used successfully once, there would be no stopping its continued use.

While the President of the FoL (Jim Knox) was out of the country, telegrams demanding action poured in from unions, delegates and workers around the country. Knox withheld from making any statements until he had been "fully briefed". FoL Secretary, Ken Douglas and Vice President Jim Boomer flew to Australia to consult with Knox, and two days later the latter made his first statement. The FoL is not seeking a confrontation with the Government, he announced, and will do everything it reasonably can to avoid such a thing. But, said Knox, pulling his meanest face, the Federation of Labour will take "firm action."

Meanwhile, Trades Councils around the country had been holding a series of meetings of all union members to discuss the Remuneration Act and the resolution of the special conference. These meetings were often held in a bit of a vacuum. No-one had a clear idea of what was being proposed in the event of the Act being used. Sometimes union members weren't properly mobilised to come to the meetings. Nevertheless, the coverage, especially among the industrial unions was fairly comprehensive. The response was overwhelming. Workers wanted the Remuneration Act stopped and they were prepared to fight to that end.

All for one

Came Tuesday 11 September, the day after the use of the Act was announced, and the meetings took on a new flavour. At Seaview, 1500 workers called on the FoL to stage a general strike to be followed by rolling stoppages. By the Friday, Knox was back in the country with the announcement that the FoL Executive would meet on Monday to plan what to do. Most people thought that meant no strike: decisions that took a week to make, leaving unionists in limbo, did not usually turn out to be decisions that required a lot of build-up work if they were to be successful.

But the pressure was on. If the Government attack was to be stopped, urgent action was required. The FoL met with the Government on Monday and made an offer: calm down, forget it, was the substance of the Government's message. Shortly after 5pm, Knox announced that the FoL was calling a "nationwide stoppage" for Thursday 20 September. New Zealand's first general strike since 1913 was on.