Margaret Wilson

Indoor Air Pollution

Air pollutants were liberated in a laboratory, and the decay of concentration was measured by standard methods during the return to equilibrium. Half-lives corrected for air leakage were as follows: hydrogen chloride 7 min; sulphur dioxide 40 to 60 min; smoke 145 to 300 min. The half-life and equilibrium concentration of sulphur dioxide could be reduced by changing the conditions. The results are compared with published work on pollution in dwellings.

Union Membership in New Zealand: An Assessment of Government Policy

There are certain issues in the field of industrial relations in New Zealand that periodically rise to prominence. One such issue is the quesxadtion of union membership, which has been once again thrust into the limelight by a statement the Minister of Labour made earlier this year . The Minister announced that during 1976 legislation would be introduced to provide for a ballot amongst workers to determine whether union memxadbership in their particular trade, industry or occupation should be voluntary or compulsory. This announcement was in accordance with the National Party’s election policy statement on industrial relations, that stated: A National Government will change the law to give workers an effective means to decide whether their unions should be compulsory or voluntary.” Not surprisingly, the Minister’s announcement has provoked much comment and vigorous debate amongst persons concerned with industrial relations in New Zealand. It is the purpose of this short article to analyse briefly the various statutory provisions that have related to union memberxadship, then to examine the Government’s proposed scheme for amending the existing statutory union membership provisions, and finally to suggest some implications of voluntary unionism upon the present industrial relaxadtions system in New Zealand.

The Language and Images of Industrial Relations: Moderates and Militants

Keith Harper writes in The Guardian: from today the club for banning the use of the words moderate and militant has been formed and I am the first member. As examples of trite terminology in trade union politics they take some beating. They are frequently bandied about in the press and elsewhere as convenient shorthand terms to describe what are generally held to be the goodies and baddies in the trade union movement.