tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post3842739427660283795..comments2024-03-26T10:03:51.827+13:00Comments on Karl du Fresne: Ken Douglas: one of the last of the old schoolKarl du Fresnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-90877892068507362132022-09-21T17:02:18.597+12:002022-09-21T17:02:18.597+12:00Totally agree. Totally agree. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-3968258688274529992022-09-17T08:47:13.729+12:002022-09-17T08:47:13.729+12:00My father was head of a family-owned trucking busi...My father was head of a family-owned trucking business and of an employers body that had to negotiate with the drivers union, and therefore Ken Douglas was his business and political adversary. I remember he used to curse Douglas during wage negotiations, but I also remember him in latter years expressing his admiration for Ken. He told me that Douglas never had to drive or take public transport anywhere - he could cross the city, the Wellington region or the country in the cabs of trucks, one driver calling ahead to arrange another ride for him until he got to his destination. A mark of their mutual respect was that Ken turned up to my father’s funeral and had some very nice words to say about his former adversary. Like my father, I am on the opposite side of the philosophical fence to communists like Douglas and Pat Kelly, but I find I have more in common with people like them, who hold strong principles, than with the passionless weathervanes who dominate our political and economic discourse today. Kiwiwithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10507667837257013301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-37808339327199237242022-09-16T06:40:40.575+12:002022-09-16T06:40:40.575+12:00Yes. I remember him once telling an ATU meeting th...Yes. I remember him once telling an ATU meeting that "The Labour party and the CTU are like strawberries and cream together"Don Frankshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17801999410940938418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-53044720591406681702022-09-15T19:19:44.010+12:002022-09-15T19:19:44.010+12:00Don, would that be the same Professor Nigel Hawort...Don, would that be the same Professor Nigel Haworth who became president of the Labour Party?Karl du Fresnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-23321937298778674792022-09-15T17:32:57.637+12:002022-09-15T17:32:57.637+12:00Yes,"Red Ken" is a recent invention I th...Yes,"Red Ken" is a recent invention I think. Big issues during the Douglas years were the government/union “Compact” – which restricted wage growth; the Labour Relations Act, which restricted the ability to strike; Workplace Reform; and the National Party’s imposition of the Employment Contracts Act (ECA). In all those struggles, and in others, Douglas consistently compromised right up to the point of capitulation. Whether a general strike against the Employment Contracts Act would have been able to kill the bill, we’’ll never know, because Douglas successfully talked other union leaders out of taking action. What we do know, only too well, is the role Douglas played in creating the ECA’s replacement. His first attempt was the infamous Workplace Relations Bill, which retained the anti strike laws of the National Party’s ECA.<br /><br />At the time I wrote to Douglas arguing: “It’s incomprehensible to me how an experienced union leadership can put up a proposal to a future government which allows workers to be jailed, sued and fined, and yet that’s what the ERB unambiguously calls for. It’s bewildering to read a proposal for a labour law restricting the right to strike, when that proposal is put up by the union side.” Douglas replied, describing his WRB as “alternative legislation that builds on the core conventions of the ILO” and simply ignored all my points about the right to strike. Todaythe same anti-strike restrictions remain law in the Labour Party’s Employment Relations Act, which Douglas also supported.<br /><br />This sell-out style of CTU leadership provoked increasing union discontent. In 1998 the Service Workers Union complained: “The CTU has continued to seek to influence policy in government forums rather than adopt an active campaigning role with a diverting of resources towards this. There is a perceived reluctance on the part of the CTU to participate in large scale campaigns which could change the climate, be catalytic events and lead to the downfall of the government.”<br /><br />In response to this and other criticism, CTU leaders commissioned a ‘review” by professor Nigel Haworth, which found the CTU to posses “a powerful and respected public presence… the work by its officers attracts high regard from across the political spectrum and from external organisations”. Beneath the Review's umbrella, CTU leaders then pushed divisive contestable funding through the CTU. All its 14 district councils were dissolved, along with their rights to retain a proportion of capitation fees. All CTU money was now controlled by a finance committee of 6. Outlying districts that required funding for any campaigned now relied entirely on approval by the new central committee. The district councils were by no means perfect but they had provided some union office accountability to rank and file dues paying members. In my view New Zealand unions are less effective and less democratic because of Ken Douglas's effect on them.Don Frankshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17801999410940938418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-86888191674291247602022-09-15T15:31:42.644+12:002022-09-15T15:31:42.644+12:00I too don't remember the "Red Ken" t...I too don't remember the "Red Ken" tag being applied to the impressive Ken Douglas, with whom I had many dealings during his career.George Tnoreply@blogger.com