UNION'S PROTEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 17

UNION'S PROTEST.

MOTUEKA WORKERS' DISPUTE.

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT.

On Thursday, Mr. J. Purtell, a member of the City Council and secretary of several unions, mado some criticism of the Auckland Builders and General Labourer's Union and said that a resolution passed by that body, criticising the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, for his attitude toward the workers involved in the public works dispute at Motueka was not likely to be supported by other unions.

In reply, Mr. G. Green, president of the General Labourers' Union, has made the following,statement:—

"Mr. Purtell says that those at the heacl of the union have been opposed to tlie Labour party for years and I would like to ask him where ho gets his information that I, as president, have ever been opposed to the Labour party. Before being dismissed from the mine because of my union activities I persuaded the McDonald Miners' Union to join the Labour party and I also worked on behalf of Mr. Lee Martin. I was on the committee in Glen Massey that helped Mr. Jordan to put up the good fight he did in the Raglan electorate the first time lie stood for Parliament. "I have always voted Labour and last election voted for Mr. Savage. I liavo criticised members of the Labour party, but not the party in general and I have urged the workers to vote Labour for the sake of the party not the individual. I have, along with j MrC* Semple, at conferences with coal miners, fought for conditions which I now see being taken away from us, namely, the right to critise the agreement, the right to ho»d woik meetings and to fight against victimisation. My executive ary-a'l supporters of Ihe Laboiii party. . . "Where docs Mr. Purtell get his information that the union in controlled by men who have been opposed for years to the Labour party? If he had fought against conditions that the past Government imposed on the workers, as these men he is now attacking did, then the workers would not have suffered the cuts that they did. I was in the mines and fousrht against them, but as miners wo "had no backing from some union secretaries. Why? Ido not think that the secretaries of many of these unions know the details of the dispute in Motueka and they should not criticise the actions of the workers there. If Mr. Purtell can make the necessary arrangements I will discuss the Motueka dispute before any of the unions he names, or in any place he pleases.