Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 1, 1938. THE WESTFIELD STOPPAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 44, 1 December 1938, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 1, 1938. THE WESTFIELD STOPPAGE.

The stoppage at the Westfield freezing works is another instance of seeking present gain at the expense of future well-being. The immediate cause is dissatisfaction over the provision of an award governing the killing of stock, concerning which the Industrial Magistrate recently admitted “defectiveness” in the particular clause in question without actually directing how it should be remedied. The men object to the delay caused by reference of the question of the Arbitration Court and in an endeavour to force the employers to accept their conditions they have brought out eight hundred employees in protest. The stoppage has its most serious aspect in the refusal of workers, brought by proper processes under the authority of the Arbitration Court, to admit that the award covering their conditions is as legally binding on themselves as it is on the employers. The attitude adopted by the Westfield men, and by others who have taken similar action, is against the interests of the workers themselves as those interests are envisaged by leaders of the Labour Party. The Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet have recently emphasised the need for increasing producing production as a means of assisting the Government to implement its policy. Such increase cannot be attained if industry is to be subjected to such harassing tactics, which have the primary effect of reducing output and the secondary, but none the less serious, effect of hindering desirable expansion of enterprise. The workers should take to heart the frank criticism voiced the other day by Mr J. Roberts, secretary of the Federation of Labour. “The strikes that have occurred in the last few months were not called after consultation with or with the concurrence of the Federation of Labour,” said Mr Roberts. One has to be quite frank in matters of this kind. When unions register under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act they forfeit their right to strike when awards made from time to time are unsatisfactory. . . If they want to retain it, they should cancel their registration under that Act and register under the Trade Unions Act. There is no compulsion to register under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. I make these remarks with a full sense of responsibility.” If the workers desire to gain benefits under the system of arbitration they should also accept with equal readiness any vision of an award that does not meet their wishes, or at least seek a remedy in a constitutional way. Abuse of their strength will only have the effect of alienating a large body of public opinion that is opposed to extremism in any direction.