"TURNED DOWN."

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 15

"TURNED DOWN."

SEAMEN AND UNITED LABOUR

f*:deratiox.

MAJORITY AGAINST

FEDERATION

fsrxcrAi, to " ms pnoi-;.")

AUCKLAND. Aususfc 2fl.

Groat interest had been taken in tho ballot of members of the three New Zealand branches c>l tho Fvde.rated cesmon's Union of Australasia on the proposal to join forces with the recently constituted United Federation of Labour. The resuli of the ballot has come to hand, und the figure.? jiru understood to be as foilow: —

Kcr .'inwtlyaiHHiion ... OJo Against Jiualyaination ... £4-5

Majority r,g;iin.-t ... l';JO

In eonnwtion with the decision o\ t!:«« I-ederau-d iS'aiiieu <if Ne«- Zealand not to affi!u;t<; with tin- l.'niteil Federatian o! Labour, it is interesting to note some of tho circumstances thatattended tlie taking of tho poll. Messrs Uilliasu Deleher (general >ecretarv of the .Seanieirs Federation). Tiiomas Youn« (secretary of tlio Wellington branch), and 1). Donovan (president of the Vr.-Uinjiton branch), linve individually tn);t'n ji very vTomihent part in the of :he new Tinted Federation of Labour. They sent out among the seamen a <ircula r strongly urgiuK tho advantages to be gained by amalgamation with the new federation, and drew attention hopefully to n prospective National Transport Workers' Department, to inuludo iSeanien's Union, AVatorside Workers' Unions, Drivers' Unions, Tramways Unions, and Kailway Unions—•■all to work in harmony for the common good of each."

As a counter to this the Auckland delegates fr.om the seamen to tho Unity Congress issued a strongly-worded appeal arjninst the proposals' to join tho United federation of Labour. Inter alia they said ''1110 benefits to bo derived are problematical. The cost is certain; the capitation is fixed at 4s per member per annum, which will cost the Auckland branch £IGO. Wellington ;l':'.2Q, and Dunedin £IGO, or between si:c and seven hundred pounds' each year. For what? Our right to conduct our own business is not preserved to us. On the other hand we should be .'it, the whim and caprice of tho National Executive—tho same, people who engineered the Waihi fiasco and the Auckland general labourers' debacle, and who can, if wo permit them, in the case of an outside union striking, impose a levy of 10 per cent., and reduce thn wages of firemen by £1 and seamen ]0s per month if such levy was struck, no matter how ridiculous be tho pretext. Did not tho Auckland general labourers and every other Federation strike point a moral?'• Iv tho face of all this, the decision by such a decisive majority to reject tho advice ot Messrs Belcher, Young, and Donovan amounts to a voto of no confidence in those prominent executive officials of tlio Federated Seamen's Union.