ARBITRATION COURT.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20421, 16 December 1931, Page 9

ARBITRATION COURT.

WORKERS AGAINST ABOLITION. (MtISS iSSOCIATIOB MUBBAU ) ■< AUCKLAND, December 15. ''lt wiy mean direct action, and that is playing into the hands of .the Communists,'' said Mr E. J. Phelan, a prominent union secretary, when discussing the Hon. W. Downie Stewart's remarks yesterday regarding the Arbitration Court. Mr Phelan said he admitted that the abolition of the Court would suit the militant section of Labour, but it was looked on with grave concern by the genuine trade union movement. Mr W. E. Parry, M.P., said the workers desired the settlement of industrial disputes by the Court. They did not \«ant to revert to the old method of fighting it out by use of the strike, which went hand in hand with misery and waste. .Mr Parry said that the Government nas not given a mandate to render the Arbitration Act abortive. The industrial centres had unmistakably expressed their disapproval of any interference with the Court. Replying to a deputation at Auckland on Monday, Mr Downie Stewart said: —"We have on the stocks some proposals regarding the Arbitration Act, although I do not think they will help nearly as much as farmers think they will. I thought the best way might be by suspension of awards, but all the experts in this subject say that would ijot oneet the case at all and that we would have to alter the constitution of the •Court." Mr fjtewart added that it appeared that it was the irritating conditions attached to awards that were the cause of the trouble.