FORCING A CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 215, 9 September 1921, Page 4

FORCING A CRISIS.

WILL ARBITRATION STAND? AN ORGANISED ATTACK. WAGES BOARDS SUGGESTED. AX IMPORTANT MOVE BY LABOUR CONFERENCE. ißj Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. The Alliance of Labour Conference considered the resignation of Mr. McCullough, the workers' representative on the Arbitration Court, this afternoon. There was a large attendance of delegates from unione representing nearly one hundred thousand members. The Conference resolved to congratulate Mr. 'McCullough upon his action, and decided upon the significant course of recommending Mr. Reardon. the workers' deputy assessor, not to act, also to request unions not to nominate any candidate for the vacant position.

This action brings to a head the disr satisfaction of trade unions over the Arbitration Court, and it will be interesting to see what alternative ia suggested. The opinion among leading trade union officers is that wages boards, 6uch as that which decided the dispute between the Amalgamated Society of Railwaymen and the RailwayDepartment, would be a more reliable and satisfactory method of settling working conditions and wages, as this body would include direct representatives of employers and employees, with an independent chairman, whose decision would carry great weight, as in the caee of the Railway Wagee Board he was mutually accepted by the parties. "We recognise fully that we have to make compromises, but when a compromise ie all on one side our faith in the Arbitration Court is entirely shaken, and it will be necessary for us to consider seriously the question as to whether some more effective and equitable manner of adjusting our disputes cannot be found," declared Mr. A. W. Croskery (secretary of the Shop Assistants' Union), when criticising an award made by the Court this week in the shop assistant*' dispute.