POSITION IN WELLINGTON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 276, 19 November 1913, Page 7

POSITION IN WELLINGTON.

RETURNHD DELEGATE'S VIEWS. Mr Bloodworth, who is a member of the local executive of the United Federation of Labour, aud who has just returned from a visit to Wellington, stated this morning that conferences of the executive had been held in Wellington, and a certain line of action had been decided upon. In Wellington, he said, the position was just as strong as it was in Auckland. The full details, he suggested, did not reach the great bulk of the people. So far as the strike was concerned, the position was absolutely solid in Lyttelton. The men -at the .Aldington workshops were quite prepared to come out if called upon, and there were other unions, such as the shearers and the tiax-millers yvho were still ready to come out if called upon. In Wellington. Mr Bloodworth said, he was able to ascertain that the work on the wharves wa.- very much congested. The specials were doing the work so badly that the foremen had grown tired of showing them, and the goods were being knocked about. It was quite evident. Mr Bloodworth 4aid. tlrat the Wellington jplnployefs, that is. the biggen men were not anxious to effect a settlement. In this connection 'Mr Bloodworth sand that tiiere was very widespread minconception as to what the United Federation was. It was altogether different from the old "Federation of Labour." The U-nrted Federation was not a syndicalist organisation at all. but comprised Arbitration unions and other legally constituted unions, on a basis that allowed each one individual liberty. In any case, only three out of all the unions in Auckland had decided to support the United Federation. So far as the allegation of being syndicalist was concerned. he contended that the Farmers' I'nion was the only syndicalist organisation in New Zealand, inasmuch at it controlled absolutely the distribution and sale of its own produce, and even dominated the Government. In conclusion, Mr Bloodworth remarked that the present strike removed once and for all the taunt that the skilled workers had always left the unskilled workers to bear the brunt of industrial struggle.