FARMERS' UNION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 137, 13 June 1938, Page 13

FARMERS' UNION.

COMPULSORY MEMBERSHIP. PROPOSAL REJECTED. (By Telegraph.—l'ress Association.) INVERCARGILL, Sunday. Tearing that new members brought into the .Farmers' Union by compulsion measures might be numerically strong enough to outvote the present membership, the Southland provincial conference of the Farmers' Union yesterday defeated a remit fhot compulsory unionism should be adopted. 'I here was no danger in compulsory unionism: rather, the danger lay in the control of the unions, stated Mr. G. Clearwater. If the powers of union secretaries were kept within bounds there would lie an improvement in the control of the labour unions. Opposition to the remit was voiced by Mr. A. W. Stevens, who said that compulsion would bring into the Farmers' Union men who might be undesirable as members. Some of the labour union members now felt that compulsory unionism had its drawbacks, in that they could not exclude a ceTtain class of member who might not be entirely in sympathy with their aims. If the membership of the Farmers' Union were made compulsory, said Mr. W. H. Ward, it might be that those made members by compulsion would be able to outvote the present membership. Such had been the experience with labour unions, the membership of which had increased through compulsion from 80,000 to 200,000.