REFUSAL TO JOIN UNION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26204, 30 August 1950, Page 8

REFUSAL TO JOIN UNION

DEFENDANT FINED £2 (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 29. “The defendant no doubt genuinely opposes compulsory unionism, but it happens to be the law of the land,” shid Mr J. S. Hanna, S.M., in the Magistrate’s . Court to-day, when ordering Q. V. R. Edlin, a mechanic, to pay £2 for failing to join a union when requested to do so by an organiser. The Magistrate said he felt that many, people were opposed to the law of the land, but nevertheless they obeyed it. “I think it would be sufficient if every time the defendant paid his membership fees he attached a note that he paid them under protest because he was not in sympathy with compulsory unionism,” continued the Magistrate. “I do not think he need go any farther than that, because it puts on record his position, but he goes too far in disobeying the law. If taxpayers paid taxes only when their own party was in office it would not be long before the State was in chaos. I really think he would be advised to sink his principles for the time being or otherwise he will be very unwise to himself and his family.”