Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 2. 7th March 1973

Union smashing

Union smashing

Still in 1913, which was, of course, the year of a nationwide waterfront strike, amendments to the Police Offences Act provided penalties for "unlawful intimidation or violence with a view to restricting the freedom of any person to do or abstain from doing any act," and specifically outlawed the traditional union right of peaceful picketing, [ unclear: tere] called watching or besetting a place of work or its approaches.

In 1932, under the impact of the depression hunger riots, Parliament passed the Safety Conservation [ unclear: till] in force today), [ unclear: allowed] the proclama- [ unclear: a] state of emergency [ unclear: tin] circumstances, such [ unclear: actual] or threatened [ unclear: which] would "deprive [ unclear: munity] or any sub- [ unclear: portion] of the com- [ unclear: of] the essentials of [ unclear: ra].

[ unclear: rtiy] before the [ unclear: out-] of war, in July, [ unclear: the] Labour Govern- [ unclear: a] took powers to de [ unclear: er] a union whose [ unclear: ers] had joined in a [ unclear: tinuance] of em- [ unclear: tent]" which had [ unclear: d], or was likely to [ unclear: a] serious loss or in- [ unclear: nience]. Such a dis- [ unclear: luance] was defined [ unclear: broadly], to include [ unclear: usal] by workers to [ unclear: t] work in which [ unclear: were] normally em- [ unclear: d], and any method, [ unclear: r] omission likely to [ unclear: a] the effect of inter- [ unclear: lg] or impeding These powers were on the day after Act was passed, [ unclear: st] the Otahuhu [ unclear: eal] Manure Work- [ unclear: nion], and they have [ unclear: used] on a number [ unclear: sessions] since then, [ unclear: recently] in [ unclear: Novem-] 1971, against the Seamen's Union.