Trade Unions And The Public

Press, Volume C, Issue 29696, 14 December 1961, Page 16

Trade Unions And The Public

Trade unions have won for themselves a privileged place in modern society; but with privilege goes responsibility. Was any sense of responsibility shown by the Takapuna Borough Council employees w’ho refused to have anything to do with the cleaning up of the Takapuna beach because the schoolboys who did most of the job were unpaid volunteers? It would be a bad day for New Zealand if trade union boycotts drove out the spirit of service that prompts voluntary work for civic and social causes. The Auckland unions, by raising no objection to voluntary labour for organisations such as churches and clubs, no doubt believe they are being broadminded. But on what pretext can unions arrogate to themselves the right to decide where the line should be drawn to make public spiritedness objectionable or unobjectionable? The Takapuna decision to declare the beach black had at least the merit of support by a general meeting. That does not appear to have been the case in another instance of union high-handedness—-the refusal of the Canterbury Shop Assistants’ Union to agree to a second late night in the week before

Christmas. Here there is some evidence that the union executive acted against the wishes of many, perhaps most, union members. The executive’s excuse was that such a concession to the public “could lead “to inroads into working “ conditions ”, The union must have little confidence in the right to those conditions if it really believes that such a simple and sensible arrangement (in operation in Auckland and approved by the Arbitration Court) could be any threat at all. A third recent example of excessive union zeal—by a union of employers as well as by a union of employees—is the agreement on how barmaids may be employed by hotels, in which industrial organisations usurp the authority of the Legislature. Trade unions have recently professed themselves anxious about the retention of their privileges. The best protection they can raise is the sympathy of the public (which includes their own rank-and-file members). Sometimes professional trade union officials seem set on nothing less than the alienation of public regard. Wittingly or unwittingly they are well on the way to achieving it.