UNION CONTROL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 108, 9 May 1941, Page 6

UNION CONTROL

The rank and file of trades unionists have long suffered under the domination of some unions by a few members, generally of the extreme type, who arrogate to themselves the right to speak, and unfortunately also to act, in the name of the whole union. Occasionally the silent majority asserts the real point of view of the union, as was done by the Wellington Carpenters and Joiners' Union last night when they drummed out of office those who were responsible for the submission to the Labour Conference of an antiwar resolution. That resolution purported to come from the union; actually it was passed at a meeting attended by only ten, and by 232 votes to 96, after the ten had drummed up every vote they could influence on their side, it was repudiated. But in the interval the remit was given an altogether fictitious importance in a lengthy debate by the Parliament of. the Trades Unions. The incident is unfortunately typical; it is in just such minority camarillas that strikes and other labour difficulties are engineered. The ordinary member does not attend meetings, or if he does is so sickened by the loud-mouthed provocation of the extremists that he drops out, and the agitator has a free hand. Before the average member knows anything about it he finds himself committed to some course of which he does not approve, but is held back from expressing disapproval by appeals for "solidarity" or a flood of epithet and invective. And so the "minorities of ten," as in the Wellington case, swing the destinies of the union.