THE TAILORS STRIKE.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 74517, 5 February 1890, Page 9

THE TAILORS STRIKE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Mr Meers* letters on this question have shown most conclusively to the public that the Tailors' Union instead o! proving a useful organisation, has in reality proved a curse to a large number of the persons it is supposed to benefit. Some months ago when matters of dispute arose at the Kaiapoi Factory my sympathy lay with the Union. At that' time I was under the impression that tha operatives really had a grievance, and that by unity and reasonableness in tbeit demands they would achieve their object, which I understood to be "a fair day's wage for a fair day's work." The strike at Messrs Parker and Tribe's factory, and the correspondence that has appeared on the question, has, however, caused mc to alter ray opinions regarding the Tallora Union, and instead of granting it my sympathy I now accord tbe employers that privilege. I, and doubtless many others of my fellow-workers, cannot identify myself with a Union whose leaders refuse to adopt the tariff prevailing in the other chief towns of the colony, or,what ia . still more important, positively decline to allow the matters in dispute to be settled by a tribunal acknowledged all over the universe as just, viz., arbitration. Tha fact of the Union declining to allow the matter to be settled by arbitration tends to strengthen the report that is being circulated, to the effect that the object Of the Union ia not really to benefit tha majority of its members, but chiefly to secure snug situations for some of tht more prominent leaders. In my endavors to ascertain how apElicable Hood's pathetic lines—as quoted y the President of the Tailors' Union in one of his letters recently—were to tha present case, I sought an interview witone of the late employees at Messrs Parked and Tribe's, from whom I learnt the following information, which I believe has not been made public before:—That tbe employees of Parker and Tribe did not §o out on strike of their own free wlab, ut having been associated with the Union during the dispute at the Kaiapoi Factory, the Executive of the Union dictated that they should go out on strike, however much the employees ware opposed to such an action. This reveals a Eretty state of things. Fancy employees aving to leave off employment against then? own and their employers* wishe_, simply to satisfy the dictum of a few agitators, who are chiefly employed in a rival factory. The reason is obvious. The question of what is to become of these deluded, unfortunate operatives, now that their employers have been compelled to close their factory, will perhaps be taken up by the public. Meantime let every right-thinking, sensible man use bis best endeavors to obliterate from our midst a Union whose leaders have done so much mischief and whose efforts have caused what would eventually have proved one of our important industries to be blotted out of existence.—Yours, &c 9 Advance Can-EBboh. - *