ARBITRATION VERSUS STRIKES

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 66, 17 March 1908, Page 3

ARBITRATION VERSUS STRIKES

t LABOUR LEADER'S VIEW. (By Telegrapß.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. For many years the Hon. J. E. Jenkinson, M.L.C.. has been closely associated with labour interest. Practically he founded the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, which is the parent of other | councils throughout New Zealand, and for over fourteen years in the Legislative Council he has done a fair snare in getting labour legislation into a passable j form. Speaking to a "Post" reporter concerning present-day labour troubles, Mr. Jenkinson said: "The existing state I of affairs, though not looked for, was expected by a good many some years ago. For the first three years of the administration of the Act there was a decided progress, and a decided innovation was made by the Court in grappling with I something which was entirely new in the history of the world. The Court launched out much more courageously than it has done since. In many of its decisions it gi.ve concessions to one side or the other. Then, when they had not been specially requested, the later day policy of the Court appears to be one of hesitancy, ft really departs from its policy of giving as little as possible to each side; it seems to grasp the position with velvet hands, and seems to be afraid of acting strongly, as in other days, lest it should stir up strife. The strikes, as far as they have occurred have been in occupations such as slaughtering and coalJ mining, which are arduous and not appeI Using." Mr. Jenkinson believes that the conditions of work in these trades have not 1 been sufficiently recognised by the ArbiI tration Court and public opinion, and 1 that the trouble that has arisen has been j the natural sequel. "To anyone watching the trend of j events." he explained, "it seems that the j conditions existing iv these trades have | far from pleased the workers, and the I present extremely cautious policy of the j Court has not made for peace. These I men knew that their employers were fully | sharing in the general prosperity ot the country; they believed that they should I have been better treated, and had lost 1 confidence in the Court as a means of I securing treatment which would be fair I according to the standard of justice. Mr. Jenkinson did not defend" the strike, but put emphasis on the men's frame of mind as explanation oi the strike of slaughtermen and the coalminers of Denniston. "The expressed opinion of the Arbitration Court that a definite mandate from j Parliament of an "eight iiours' day bank to bank" could not be followed without the sanction of the Arbitration Court, put the men in a quandary," said Air. ! Jenkinson. "The men had a choice of J breaking the general law of the bind ; or the law of the Arbitration Court, and chose the lesser liability—the breakage jof the award. This .tt.titude of the ! Court, added to the general suspicion j among the workers that thA Court u~S I orrinfr on the side of carefulness and ani diie caution, perhaps prompted some of i the more progressive 'iiemb Ts 0_ 1 lie I union to adopt an attitude w.-iich was | entirely wrong. 1 use thd word 'proi gre_.sivc' advisedly, bocaus • many are apt to call these men '.imitators,' but • they are indispensable men ~ho voice the needs of all. While the llcnnistou strike might be justified to some extent, the recent strike at Blackball was entirely wrong. The trill tune, which was not a very pressing matter, could have been brought before the Court in a week or two. One cannot help ' thinking, however, that though the crib time was given as an excuse, it was not j the real reason of the trouble. To say that politics has entered the minds of the men is nonsense.'' "1 'hink." said I Mr. Jenkinson, "a shaking of confidence ' ! in the Court as at present constituted, i together with the fact that the Covern-J j ment had last session promised miii provements in the methods of settling I industrial disputes, has done much towards making the workers double their exertions to .have their lot brought more in line with the prosperous way 'of fellow colonists. It cannot be gain- \ I said, perhaps, that the lot _>f the worker j j has been benefited by the generil prosj perity of the country, but it has not kept pace with the lot cf other sec- ! i tions of the community. I have not the j slightest hesitation in saving that, de- i j spite the troubles that have arisen, and [ the crisis through which the industrial I policy is passing, the men themselves— | and 1 class the 'agitators' among them j —will still cling to conciliation and atj bitration as a far better method than j the old savage system of strikes for securing a betterment of conditions." Mr. Jenkinson is of opinion that the difficulties of coal minej-s' work are not sufficiently appreciated by anybody ex- ; I cept the men themselves, and tli.it the' | whole matter requires comprehensive rij vision. The march of progress, he says. | has done little to make the work of a miner less harrowing, less brutalising almost, than it was gensrationa ago.