Trades Council To Pay Libel Award To Neary

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 18

Trades Council To Pay Libel Award To Neary

(New Zeaiana Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 2.

After a stormy session, the Wellington Trades Council tonight decided to foot the bill for the NearyWalsh libel action.

Delegates clashed heatedly over whether the £3550 damages awarded to Mr A. J. Neary, secretary of the New Zealand Electrical Workers’ Union, against Mr F. P. Walsh, chairman of the council, and seven other members of the council, should be paid out of union funds.

Some delegates agreed that their unions should help Mr Walsh and other defendants to pay the damages awarded last week by a Supreme Court jury. Others flatly refused to have anything to do with the' matter.

Those refusing to pay said after the meeting broke up in disorder at 10.10 p.m. that union funds were paid in to benefit the trade union movement as a whole. They maintained that funds were not paid to meet libel and other civil actions brought against various members of the trade union organisation. Any such actions were the private affairs of those involved—not of the trade union movement.

None of the delegates spoken to after the meeting ended was willing to be quoted on what happened. An attempt was made to obtain a statement from Mr Walsh, and a delegate was asked to tell him that a reporter wanted to see him. However, he was missed in the exodus from the Trades Hall, Vivian street, after the meeting.

The argument during the meeting among the 100 or more delegates attending could be clearly heard from the alley leading to the Trades Hall.

The meeting was scheduled to finish at 10 o’clock. When Mr Walsh, who was in the chair, attempted to carry on with the meeting delegates started to walk out in protest. Mr Walsh was left still standing and talking with the aid of a microphone from the platform as members

streamed out. Many continued to argue heatedly among themselves outside the halt The meeting of the Trades Council, postponed for a week, upset the dance generally held in the Trades Hall on Wednesday nights. Four girls who walked up the stairs expecting the dance to be in progress were told by an official: “Sorry, girls, no dance tonight—only a boxing match in progress.”

Challenge Proposed Preparations are being made to challenge the council’s decision. The secretary of the Wellington Fire Brigade Officers' Union (Mr J. R. Scott) said tonight that a meeting of the union had instructed its president and secretary to take all legal steps to prevent Trades Council funds from being used for payment of the costs.

At least one other union is understood to be considering taking similar action, or supporting action on those lines. The libel action is not yet closed, the Court having deferred entering judgment for 14 days. This period will not expire till next week.