Who's Intimidating who?

Employers' Federation executive director Jim Rowe played a consistent role right through the lead up and aftermath to the strike, he tried to claim that the Drivers' award was higher than it was. That was disproved. Then he tried to claim that the general strike wouldn't prove anything. It proved something alright: that the working class is capable of organising to fight back on a mass scale against attacks on its living standards.

So Rowe claimed that the reason many workers had stayed home was that they had been intimidated by their union officials. Salient has heard of some cases of intimidation that it thinks provide a suitable answer to Rowe's charge. But they don't concern union officials. Just the opposite.

It was announced that only one Ministerial Press Officer went out on strike. Apparently, several others were told by their Minister that if they didn't turn up on Thursday they could expect to be down the road on Friday.

In another more widespread case, also concerning government employees, it seems that in some Departments all those who wanted to strike were called in to see their director. There the individual pressure was put on. In at least one department, the workers were told that they were part of the management! Those who didn't accept such a sudden revelation were asked if that meant they did not expect to get promoted up the scale.

Under such conditions of harassment, it is surprising that the PSA managed to get the large numbers that it did. But such tactics were not limited to the public sector. During the days leading up to the strike, a group of people calling itself the "Combined Unions" telephoned many offices in Wellington to inform the workers that the strike was not official. These examples point to the kind of pressure that can be exerted on employees who have some degree of union consciousness.