THE A.P.U.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9128, 25 October 1917, Page 8

THE A.P.U.

RECOMMENDATION TO STRIKE

In the " Maoriland Worker " of September 26 a colnma ef the Country Workers' pag« is devoted to a manifesto issued over the signatures of the president, . vice-president, and secretary, to tint members of the crossbred organisation known as the A.P.U. The manifesto, (says the "Fanners' Union Advocate") boasts of the "long and persistent .efforts to secure improvements in the rates of pay and conditions for tb.c. ensuing season," and warns inembvn, that they must 'not fcase m strike after having entered into an agieement on the following l.itoH ot pay:—

Shearing, £1 7s Cd per 100, if not tound £'Tils 6d; wool rollers and presBerb, £'2 12s 6d per week, or Is 6d per hour; other shed hands, £2 10s per week, or l«"5d per hour; cooks, £3 10s per week; a*j>ibtant cooks, £2 10s per wjek.' 'Though the A.P.U: has the remarkable audacity to issuo such a manifesto, no one xndustiiaj agreement lias been ninde with that organisation, and the "Shearers probably know well enough that the A.P.U. did all it possibly could to present the shcaxeis ironi making an agieement with the hheepowiierb, »nd only tor the action of the sheeponnera in citing the shearers, no such satisfactory agieement would have been in existence to-da>. It is tnie that some of the representatives appointed by the sheareis' umonr. ait' alvo offi'-ialb of the A.P.U., but n,-> such Lhej had absolutely no yoice in Uie proceedings. The secretary f.l the Shearers' Union, who is secretary ot the A P.U., a&suied the conciliation Council that he as officei of botl. organisations would do his best to ha' 3 the agreement faithfully carried Qul, and the manifesto is one of the nacrthodß to which lie has signified : appro/al b^ attaching his signatnie. If thai iv-Qir all we would not bother ourseb'ea to notice it, but light underneath the manifesto referred to is placed, .a .set of rules to which the at~ tentioa oi the members of the A.P.U. is drawn, and in which the following recomme'adation occurs:—"That it be A' rdcotttmeadfltion-'that all shed representatives and members of the A.P.U. generally refuse to commence to work until all hands, including the cook, agree lo • become members of the a.p.u :'':

Tho "Worker" docs not indicate who ir> re<>ponsible for the issue of that recommonda-tion, but we have no hesitation, ia stigmatising it as a barefaced incitement to a strike. The fact -lhat bhe A.P.U. is not a party to the award 'absolves that organisation from tKe'jac<;us«U6n'" that a breach has been ioiiimibttjrl, and apparently the knowledge -fc}jat!<the A.P.U. is beyond the i-each erf the law as far as the Arbitration' Court is concerned, has made it bold to the point of the highwayman. The effectiveness, of • the recommendaiou must, of course, depend upon fche recklessness of its members in the shearing sheds, and upon the apatii'y- displayed by the sheepowners iv pn-teciing those workers who have. hitherto refused to throw in their lot with the A.P.U. We certainly are meht aaxious to see the shearing done v/ithou.b aay sign of industrial trouble, and lor this reason we heartily approved the' ''increases granted to shearers aud shed hands, but we are .not going to stand idly by while the 'A.P.Q.'bludgeons, every shearing shed worker into its ranks. We appeal to ■eveiy sheepowner to make it a point of honour that no such coercion will be permitted .'in their sheds. If nothing :else .happened, to justify our hosifcility feo that hybrid organisation this xecomtueH.cTation to those workers who '"happen to be members of" it should be sufficieafc to condemn, the organisation in the eyes, of all reasonable and peacer; loying x?ie?i., We/:cannot believe that. the shearers themselves Would submit to such, coercive measures, and we hope. those members' who try to carry out the behests'-of the A.P.U. agitator will promptly meet with the treatment they merit. We are not experts : in> interpreting war regulations, but -we think the racommendation of the A.P.U. cqmos pcnlously near bringing the ofiiciala within their scope.