STEWARDS WANT PREFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 63, 14 March 1924, Page 7

STEWARDS WANT PREFERENCE.

OPPOSED BY EMPLOYERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Stewards' Union claimed and the shipowners opposed the embodiment of a new preference clause in the new award now being asked for in the Arbitration Court. Mr. E. Kennedy explained that there was always room for a changed attitude. It was not so long, he said, since the farmers, at meetings of their members, used to oppose any such provision in awards, but, when the meat pool was established, they were the very ones to ad- ■ vocatc that all farmers should be compelled to join it. j Mr. Justice Frazer suggested that I their action may have been dictated jby what Mr. Kennedy called "solidarity." Mr. Kennedy explained that they j did not intend to ask for interference j with the employers' right to safeguard the membership of their union. The clause was similar to the one in the galley staff award, and there was no reason why it should not be granted. His Honor explained that the meaning of that portion of the proposed preference clause referring to Ausi tralian unionists was that if a steward joined in Australia he could be compelled to join the New Zealand union unless he was a member of the Ausi tralian union.