Wayne Mapp MP
National Party Industrial Relations Spokesman

31 August 2006

Unions drag everyone down - Mapp

National Party Industrial Relations spokesman Wayne Mapp says Labour’s “draconian” industrial relations legislation is slowing the country down as both businesses and consumers are held to ransom.

"A policy that allows a small minority of a company's workforce to threaten the livelihood of the majority is absolute madness, but that's exactly what's happening under Labour.

“But this kind of action is hardly surprising when the union has former radical Alliance MP Laila Harre at the helm.”

He is commenting on the National Distribution Union strike of 500 supermarket shelf stockers employed by Progressive Enterprises, which has said the employment of its 17,500 non-striking workers is at risk as a result of this industrial action.

Dr Mapp says this is just the latest example of the unions flexing their muscles to enforce Labour’s legislation, which gives them preferential treatment.

Almost 33,000 person days of work were lost to industrial action in the year ending March 2006.

“National predicted this kind of widespread union action would result from Labour’s legislation,” says Dr Mapp.

“The impact on productivity and our essential industries will be many millions of dollars and will continue to get worse unless something is done to fix this stifling legislation.

“This increasing strike action marks a return to the bad old days of union domination. Labour has reduced the freedom of non-union workers and employers, making it much more difficult to do business.

“In Government National will remove the union preference and the ‘us vs. them’mentality it has brought to employment law.”

ENDS

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