UNIONS AND INSURANCE

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 5

UNIONS AND INSURANCE

COMPETITION OF COMPANIES, , AN ALLEGED CONSPIRACY. [ ______ LABOUR PARTY'S PATH. i (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) — LOXDOX, September 6. At the Trades Union Congress alarm was expressed at, the inability of trades unions to compete with the great insur- : ance societies in enrolling members under the Insurance Act, There are 13,000,000 insured workers, and the companies have already secured sis and a-ba]f million. Mr J. Ward (Labour M.P. for Stoke-on-Trent), speaking at Newport, said trades unionists had been cajoled and intimidated into .joining the insurance companies' schemes. The Congress resolved to inquire into alleged conspiracy between the insurance companies and employers. Sonic members of the Congress denounced the Insurance Act as a curse to casual worker*. ' Mr Ramsay Mac Donald pleaded for more generous treatment of the party by Labour critics. The party's path, he said, was difficult. It had to tread between a Liberal morass on one hand and a wild beast on the other. i ■■■ MAY WASH THEIR HANDS OF IT (Received 10.50 a.m.) LOyrX>y, September 6. Ida Trades Union Congress wilj convene a conforon'-e to (•■r>n&id»r the Government's strtiTi in differentiating between insurance companies; and improved union?. Mr S*dd<%n I Labour M.P.I said that <iin>i»>nti3*in;: meant- iraii* union bankruptcy. Unl»£S remedied they -would wash J their hands if th« v'hol" insurance K-hensP.