RESTRICTIONS ON UNIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2, 2 January 1903, Page 4

RESTRICTIONS ON UNIONS.

The case" brought bettofe.the Arbitration Court-in Wellington-on Wednesday, in which" the firemen, appealed against the Registrar for refusing to register them : as a : separate union, is. one of considerable importance. There is no doubt that the Conciliation and Arbitration Act aims at restricting the number of unions which may make appeals to the Court. This is an absolutely necessary provision, as the law provides that an award shall be absolutely binding upon the whole of the trade concerned within the district, there must be collective representation of the work- ! men who are empowered to invoke the intervention of the Court. It is

also necessary that some representative union shall be responsible on j behalf of the woricws- for the due observance of their part of the contract. In the case of the Wellington firemen the Registrar objected to their incorporation into a separate union on the ground that there are already two seamen's unions into which they can obtain admission. The firemen, however, contend that their calling is sufficiently specialised justify separate treatment. A very similar case has just been decided by the Arbitration Court in New South-Wales. The United Labourers' Union,, which admits all workers earning 7/ per day, appealed to the Court to cancel the registration of the Builders' Labourers' Union, thereby compelling its members to join forces with the great body of city labourers. To this they objected, on the g-rbund that their calling is a distinctive one, and involves special skill. The Registrar at Sydney, after hearing both sides, decided that the builders' labourers were entitled to a separate union, and declined to cancel their registration. At the same time, he clearly recognised that the law really proceeds on the principle of one trade; one union. The definition of a trade is somewhat loose, but the plea put forward by the builders' 'labourers, that they were differentiated from other classes of labourers "by the nature of their work and the community of their interests," seems to have satisfied the Registrar with the validity of their right to a separate '-union. It will-be interesting to note what decision the New Zealand Arbitration Court comes to in the case of the firemen.