Solomon Islands Unions Back Intervention

"We have received a plea from the Solomon Islands Council of Trade Unions to support the New Zealand Government's intervention, and for trade union support for their people," the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.
"The Solomon Islands CTU has advised by letter that it fully supports the proposed intervention by Australia and New Zealand to help restore the deteriorating law and order situation and the country's declining and dying economy," he said

"The SICTU reports that thousands of workers in the Solomon Islands have gone through untold pain and suffering over the past four years as a result of the devastation inflicted upon the islands' socio-economic and political life by the ethnic conflict and the ensuing massive wave of extortion, intimidation, blackmail, and widespread corruption," Ross Wilson said

The resolution supporting intervention was passed unanimously at meetings of the various trade union affiliates of the SICTU, held last month.

"It is clear that, as always in these conflicts, it is the ordinary working people of the Solomon Islands who are suffering and they welcome the help of our New Zealand troops and police in restoring the country to normality," Ross Wilson said.