Trades Hall Bombing Motor Industry Paid Sick Leave
In 1984 a bomb was placed outside room 3, George Thompson’s print room. Pat Kelly (Trades Council President) saw it but did not pick it up because he was carrying a load of George’s leaflets directed at breaking the government’s wage freeze.
George came from the motor industry and took part in the many struggles, one of the most celebrated to establish 10 days paid sick leave in the early 1970s. At the time only public servants had sick pay. According to workers’ legend the dispute was only settled when GM got permission from head office in the USA. Mitsubishi twice tried to cut back the sick leave by lockouts in the 1990s but failed. The government decided to close the motor assembly industry down in the 1990s – the last link of the GM Trentham plant production chain is on display with a photo from a GM picket line.
The motor industry was a big employer in Wellington helping to set the prevailing wage rates in the region. In its heyday the motor vehicle assembly industry provided 3% of New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product before the elimination of tariffs saw the foreign owned companies close their manufacturing operations in New Zealand. Tariffs paid on foreign assembled vehicles made them more expensive than those made in New Zealand. According to successive governments, the tariff was subsidising the industry’s jobs in New Zealand at the expense of new car buyers and should be removed.
Tariff reductions have adversely impacted jobs and earnings in many industries that were originally established with government support to help protect living standards from the impact of international market down turns.