Since I wrote my article "Comalco's Power Play" ( Multination al Monitor, June 1991), there have been further developments with Comalco. A trade journal has revealed that the power generation unit set up inside the head office of Comalco's parent, CRA, has been disbanded because of the failure to bring off several projects, including buying the Manapouri power station (or building a coal-fired power station in New Zealand's North Island). Comalco has diversified into Chile, where it is investigating a hydro scheme that would flood a national park for a smelter.
Due to a combination of severe drought in the hydro catchment and Electricorp's profit- driven mismanagement, New Zealand has been plunging into a severe power crisis. This has occurred, with virtually no warning, in the midst of a particularly severe winter. Hot water is currently cut off for up to 17 hours per day; total blackouts are threatened. Comalco has closed one potline at its Tiwai Point smelter, for a limited period, claiming this is the first time it's done this anywhere in the world. Commentators point out that the world aluminum price is currently down US$66 per ton, so it is a useful time to stockpile. Electricorp is also paying Comalco up to NZ$10 million of taxpayers' money, as compensation.
As you also reviewed Roger Moody's Plunder, we would also like it known that CAFCA (Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa) is co-publisher of this book.
In relation to Robert Reid's article in the same issue ("Crushing Labor in New Zealand"), it is worth pointing out that Comalco was one of the very first major employers to take advantage of the Employment Contracts Act, and put its workers on deunionized contracts.
Reid's article had one major omission. The union movement was very slow to act against the New Right revolution enacted under the 1984-90 Labour government, because the NZ Labour Party arose out of the trade unions. There was always a close working relationship between the two; unions funded the party; affiliated unions had bloc voting rights at annual party conferences. The leadership of the NZ Council of Trade Unions maintained loyalty throughout the wholesale assault on workers - just months before Labour's 1990 electoral oblivion, it signed a deal with the government, agreeing to a 2 percent limit on wage rises.
In 1984, one of Labour's campaign promises was to "Save Rail." My union (the national union of rail workers) campaigned for Labour and contributed tens of thousands of dollars. Long before Labour's two terms were up, we had disaffiliated from Labour, which presided over the "downsizing" of NZ Railways staff by 70 percent (including me).
Murray Horton,
Secretary, CAFCA
Christchurch, New Zealand