Official Responses

The next morning, the Dominion came out gloating that the strike had been a failure and would have strengthened the Government's resolve to stand firm. The Government must have taken a different view of the matter, because Acting Prime Minister Brian Talboys cancelled a trip overseas at the eleventh hour in order to be here for whatever happened the next week.

Labour Minister Jim Bolger called the strike "completely ineffectual", but when he sat down with the FoL to work out the next step in the Drivers' dispute, he wasn't able to turn his opinion to any advantage. The talks broke up with no advance having been made. Dairy farmers in the Waikato, pouring thousands of gallons of milk down the drain, knew how effective the strike had been as far as they were concerned.

The Chairman of the Combined State Unions, Ivan Reddish, called the response "excellent in the time available to organise". But it was Knox himself who may have put his finger on the immediate sign of success: two awards were settled at a level above that allowed the Drivers, and no Government action had been taken or was forthcoming. Bolger, asked to comment on this, resorted to the old arguments about strike action and overtime payments. It was clear though, that the Government's determination over the Drivers had been significantly deflected.