SOLOMON IS: Trade unions under threat

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SOLOMONS TRADE UNIONS UNDER THREAT

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-11dec2000-44.htm

Trade unions could become a thing of the past in Solomon Islands if Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has his way.

Mr Sogavare has foreshadowed a possible move to outlaw trade unions.

In his last speech to Parliament for 2000, Mr Sogavare claimed unionism had no place in a small economy like the Solomons.

The Solomon Islands trade union movement has been one of the more dynamic in the Pacific Islands.

Former Prime Minister Bart Ulufa'alu was one early union leader while his successor, Joses Tuhanuku, became a spokesman for unions throughout the Pacific.

However, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation quoted Prime Minister Sogavare as saying - in his adjournment of Parliament address - that unionism was a foreign concept that would have to be reconsidered.

He argued that unions were not suitable for an economy where the utilisation rate of labour was low and he listed doing away with unions as a potential area of for economic reform if the Solomons was to progress.

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