Obituary: John Findlay

John Findlay

* John Findlay, Boilermakers Union leader, died aged 80.

John Findlay, a former president and secretary of the Boilermakers Union, arrived in New Zealand in the 1940s. Born in Glasgow and a boilermaker by trade, he came complete with a staunch belief in unionism born of his working-class background.

He was a profound but not publicly visible influence in the union, spanning some 40 years starting in the 1950s. His time in office included decades, particularly the 1970s, when the boilermakers caused ructions in industry.

And angst to a stream of both Labour and National Ministers of Labour, resulting in many threats of deregistration. Eventually two of the local unions - Wellington and Kawerau - were deregistered. Auckland was considered lucky to have escaped the same fate.

A long-time boilermaker and former union national executive member, John Jones, summed up John Findlay for the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's announcement of his death, calling him a man of honesty and integrity. And a strong leader.

"He set the awards - nothing happened until he gave it the go ahead," Jones said.

"He never left his working-class roots behind and he stayed dedicated to the movement even though it cost him his family."

Boilermakers do metal fabrication and welding in the heavy engineering industry and work on bridges, ships, boilers and high-rise projects.

A 1977 commission of inquiry into the heavy engineering industry found that seven heavy engineering companies had been closed down due primarily to the "disruptive tactics and restrictive practices imposed by certain sections of the Auckland and Wellington boilermaker unions".

The inquiry identified other factors in the closures including costs, a lack of constant work in the New Zealand market and a lack of skilled tradesmen, the last-mentioned a "situation exploited by the boilermakers". Both employers and unions acknowledged to the inquiry "a state of deplorable industrial disharmony in the heavy engineering industry".

John Jones said John Findlay's achievements in his many years as union secretary included getting a 52-hour week, when boilermakers were often doing 60- to 70-hour weeks, and redundancy and deafness payments.

"Bosses would pile on the hours for jobs to get them done, then lay off workers over slow seasons like Christmas and then hire them back when it picked up again," Jones said.

Boilermakers' industrial action in Mr Findlay's time caused lengthy delays to a host of engineering projects, led by the rusting steel framework of the Bank of New Zealand building in Wellington.

Union action even caused part of a ship-load of steel to have to return from Auckland to Sydney. The steel was welded to the ship to prevent it moving while at sea. Boilermakers insisted it was they, and not watersiders, who should cut through the welding.

Lines of demarcation over who handled what in steel work were becoming blurred by changing technology, materials and techniques. Findlay crossed swords with the Engineers Union on such issues.

In John Findlay's time, employers blamed boilermakers for industrial strife, and they, in turn, blamed employers. The reality, however, was a trend to avoid the boilermakers union and to build in reinforced concrete instead of steel. A triumph of union muscle over brain, you could say.