NEW CARPENTERS’ UNION

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25797, 7 May 1949, Page 6

NEW CARPENTERS’ UNION

Registration Not Yet Effective APPLICATION FOR INJUNCTION , From Our Own Reporter WELLINGTON. May 6. A statement on the carpenters’ and joiners’ dispute was issued to-nigitt in the name of the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan). The statement said that Mr McLagan has consented Under section 2 (4) of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 1939, to the registration of the new Auckland Carpenters’ and Joiners’ and Joiners’ Machinists’ Union. The registration, however, will hot be effected by the Registrar pending the hearing of proceedings initiated in the Supreme Court by officials of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand (except Otago and Southland) Carpenters’ and Joiners’ and Joiners’ Machinists’ Union for an injunction against the Registrar to restrain him from registering tne new union. The Registrar is asking for an early hearing to the application for an injunction. “My decision to consent to the registration of the new union,” said the Minister, "has been made as a result of the repeated refusal of the deregistered union to have a secret ballot taken, its openly expressed disregard for the law and its continued refusal to accept its obligations under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. "The new union,” said Mr McLagan', "has a clear majority over the adherents of the deregistered organisation, and this no doubt is the reason for the repeated refusal of the latter organisation to agree to the taking of a secret ballot, which ■ they suggest is undue interference with their freedom of action as a union. So far from the request to take a secret ballot being interference with the affairs bf the union, I would point but that the taking of a secret ballot is enjoined upon them by the very law under which they desire again to obtain registration. “Democratic Rules” “The rules of the new union,” continued the Minister, “provide for the annual election of officers and other members of the executive by a secret postal ballot of all the members of the union, the ballot being conducted by an independent and reputable person not connected with the union. They also provide, in accordance with section 8 of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 1947, for a secret ballot of the members of the union on any proposal to strike and. in addition, all major matters of policy affecting the union and the welfare of its members (including the amendment of the rules and the removal of officers) shall be the subject of a secret postal ballot. These democratic rules are in striking contrast with the rules of the deregistered union, which appear to facilitate the control ci the uhion by an organised minority exercising powers of dictatorship regardless of the wishes of the majority of its members. “It is clear,” concluded the Minister. “that the officials and each and every one of the members of the new union are willing and anxious to obtain the benefits of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and to accept its obligations. It is also clear that the new union has the full support of the majority of the carpenters in the deregistered area, and for these reasons I would not have been justified in withholding my consent to registration.”