Media Statement
Hon Max Bradford

17 January 2000

UNIONS START INTRUSION INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES

Trade unions are starting the unwelcome intrusion into ordinary New Zealanders lives – ahead of legislation giving unions preferential treatment in the workplace.

“The trade union decision to attempt to recruit young New Zealanders at music festivals and nightclubs is an intrusion,” Opposition Labour and Industrial Relations spokesperson Max Bradford said today.

“People usually go out to music festivals and nightclubs to have a good time and relax after work – not to be baled up by a union relic telling them how to run their lives.

“I hardly think those who went to The Gathering over the New Year would have welcomed a visit to their campsite to be harassed into joining a union.

“For most young New Zealanders unions are an irrelevant relic of the past.

“Unions are a barrier to vital change in a fast changing world. Union membership is declining both in New Zealand and around the world.

“The attempt to sign up young people comes in advance of Government legislation allowing unions preferential rights of access to the workplace to recruit members and for secondary strikes. “This is the shape of the new industrial relations environment.”

ENDS

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