19,000 ORGANISED UNIONISTS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22389, 30 April 1938, Page 8

19,000 ORGANISED UNIONISTS

LABOUR FEDERATION MEMBERSHIP

POSITION OF CANTERBURY BRANCH

Forty-five trade unions, representing 19,394 workers, are now organised under the Canterbury District Council of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. Reports presented to the annual meeting of the council held at the Trades Hall, showed that the strength of the council since its inception in 1927, and particularly in the last two years, had been rapidly advanced. The New Zealand Federation of Labour, through its district councils, has made appeals to all trade unions to unite under the one representative body. Many have done so, but others have refused. In Canterbury the majority of the unions have now affiliated, and the Canterbury District Council may speak the voice of a large body of workers. Reports presented to the annual meeting said that the council had functioned very successfully in the last 12 months as the axis of the union movement in the province. The meeting elected the following officers: —President, Mr J. Roberts (Clothing Trades Union); vice-presi-dent, Mr H. H. McCaw (Canterbury Drivers' Union); secretary, Mr R. A. Crooks (Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union); executive, Mrs J. Souter (Canterbury Domestic Workers' Union), Messrs C. F. Saunders (Christchurch branch National Unemployed Workers' Movement), H. G. Kilpatrick (Canterbury Freezing Workers' Union), W. Laing (Lyttelton Waterside Workers' Union), T. Martin (Seamen's Union), R. Jones (Christchurch Engineers* Union), and J. Empson (Clothing Trades Union).