FEDERATION OF LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22237, 30 October 1937, Page 14

FEDERATION OF LABOUR

Membership Nearly 200,000 V NATIONAL CONTROL IN DISPUTES The New Zealand Federation of Labour, established last March, now has an affiliation stated to approach 200,000 members. All the principal trade unions are marshalled under its banner, and its constitution is so planned that no union will be able to make use of the strike as a weapon in industrial disputes without first having the approval of the national organisation. This ordering of the trade union forces of the Dominion is considered among union officials to be the most effective weapon of its type that has yet been devised. As explained by officials, the federation has the power to make recommendations which are in effect almost directions to the unions. General policy for the workers will be debated and sifted out by the central executive, which will be in a position to speak the one voice of the unions. Individual unions will not go on strike without having the approval of the national body through the local branch of the federation, and it is hoped that unnecessary and undesirable strikes, and sporadic industrial- skirmishes will be avoided. Each industry in which the federation considers a strike desirable for the furtherance of workers' interests will attract the attention and action of all unions. Thus the whole union movement will be behind the one striking unit, wherever the national body considers a strike desirable. This is the plan of the federation. The national council of tthe federation has only recently made an important recommendation to the unions. It has asked that all unionists conduct a personal boycott against Japanese goods, as a protest against Japan's actions in China. If this request is acted upon, as appears likely, it may be a powerful demonstration of the unity which the federation hopes to achieve.