Herald on Sunday

Union declares war on peas

- Rodney Hide rodney.hide@hos.co.nz

There was a time, not so long ago, when the unions could make the country grind to a halt and drop a government to its knees. Not now. Their latest industrial action is to tweet a boycott of My Food Bag.

That you didn’t know demonstrat­es their puniness. That you don’t care shows how pathetic they are. And why My Food Bag? Well, it’s complicate­d. My Food Bag gets its peas from Talley’s. And Talley’s own Affco. And Affco is in dispute with the Meatworker­s’ Union.

So the Public Service Associatio­n that represents government workers wants you to ditch My Food Bag, so pressuring them to ditch Talley’s peas, so making Affco play nice with the meatworker­s. That’s quite a few steps. Once upon a time there would have been a picket. There would have been punch-ups. The safety of anyone crossing the picket could not be guaranteed. The police would have kept their distance. The Government would have got involved. That was true industrial muscle.

Union bosses had power backed by thugs who didn’t hesitate to use violence.

And now? The cardigan-wearing public servants are trying to stir up trouble on behalf of their meatworker mates.

And they are doing so through their media adviser, lobbing tweets into cyberspace. It’s an extraordin­ary fall from power. My Food Bag makes the softest of targets because its customers are tech savvy and online. The company is new. And it’s easy for customers to drop. It is a soft target compared to supermarke­ts. But still the boycott fizzled. We live in a truly marvellous world. We can order dinners packaged and delivered to our door with all the ingredient­s and recipes. We can do so from our phones in our pocket.

Our holidays are no longer destroyed by the Cook Strait ferry workers. Farmers are no longer held to ransom by union goons. We are more productive and more prosperous.

And just to remind us how marvellous things are the PSA demonstrat­es union puniness and patheticne­ss by failing to tweet up a storm against My Food Bag.

Once upon a time there would have been a picket. There would have been punch-ups.

 ?? Christine Cornege ?? Picketers at Affco in 2012.
Christine Cornege Picketers at Affco in 2012.
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