REPORT OF DUNEDIN DELEGATES

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26094, 22 April 1950, Page 6

REPORT OF DUNEDIN DELEGATES

MANY QUESTIONS LIKELY TO BE ASKED (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN. April 21. When delegates of the Dunedin : branch of the New Zealand Tramways’ : Union to the annual Federation of Labour conference arrive back in Dunedin 1 to present their report to a meeting of the union, it is more than likely : that some of the members will have questions to ask about the "walkout” in which delegates from the Tramways’ Union, including the Otago ■ president (Mr W. B. Richards) took ' part. When a special meeting of the Dun- , edin branch of the Tramways’ Union 1 was called cn June 5. 1949. to hear the 1 report of delegates to that year’s con- < ference. some members expressed their ' displeasure at the action of their dele- < gates in walking out of the conference ’

over the carpenters’ union issue. Speakers at that meeting said that it was a fundamental principle of democracy that the minority should stand by decisions of the majority, and they questioned the right of delegates to leave the conference when they had been appointed by the union to represent them for the whole of the proceedings. Speakers pointed out that delegates had made the visit at the expense of the union and thus had an obligation to the membership to be present. Similar questions are likely to be asked by the union when delegates present their report on the Federation of Labour conference this year. 'The major question of the day will be the affiliation of the Tramways’ Union with the Federation of Labour and its relations with the newly-formed New Zealand Trade Union Congress. The rapid change of the associations of the president of the union from delegate to the federation conference to an executive officer of the new organisation will also be among the questions some mernbers of the union say that they would like to have explained to them. Some members feel that they would like a full explanation by the president of the branch and the x national | union as to what the union and its branches might be committed to by the action of the president in assuming that new office, and whether he acted on their behalf or on his own initiative in making the decision to hold executive office in the New Zealand Trade Union Congress.