Lawless Labour.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18591, 16 January 1926, Page 12

Lawless Labour.

The letter from the correspondent signing himself "Justice," which we print in another column to-day, expresses an opinion which is growing amongst fair-minded people. That opinion is, that the Government ought I to revise the Arbitration Act in order I to compel organised Labour to keep its part of the contract which the Act embodies. The Act confers enormous privileges and benefits' upon trade unions, and it exacts from the unions no corresponding duty or responsibility. It does not prevent strikes, although it affects to make most kinds of strikes illegal and punishable. It has not even created in the army of organised Labour any sense of obligation to avoid strikes. This last is really the most serious of the failures of the principle of industrial arbitration. Fortunately it is a failure which can be retrieved by legislation, and the Government wiJl be failing in its duty if it does not make some attempt to transform into a, just and effective law an Act which is no longer respected by organised Labour, and has ceased to safeguard the public interest against trade-union lawlessness and bad faith. The disposition of the average man, and therefore the average unionist, is to carry out the contracts he makes; and that trade-unionists have become willing to break their contracts and to '. cheat their employers is a result of ' the lawless and dishonest spirit of

many of Labour's leaders. The rank and file of organised Labour are in the nature of things dependent upon their leaders. Everyone knows that in every unlawful strike every honest striker who reflects upon his position hates to be on strike, but the machinery of unionism is hard and ruthless, and the worker dares not break step. The witch-doctors of unionism see to that. The great defect of the Arbitration Act is that it makes no. adequate provision for the visitation upon unions of the faults of their officials. Our corre- : spondent " Justice " suggests that the unions, should incur the penalty of de- ; registration in the event of any strike, ; whether the strike is a general stoppage of work or such a " strike on the job" as is now proceeding in the freezing-works. A somewhat similar suggestion was made by a contributor to " The Press " in November last, and both suggestions are symptomatic of a growing public indignation with the unprincipled leadership of " the Labour "movement." If the Act were to be amended to take cognisance of " strikes "on the job," and to provide for deregistration and a heavy monetary penalty upon guilty unions, and if these penalties were unswervingly inflicted, the country • would not long be compelled to endure the loss and disturbance which it is the aim of the presentday Labour officials to bring about. There is hardly anything the Government could do which would meet with more cordial approval from a majority of the people; and that majority would include a very large section of the organised workers.