A MANIFESTO

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 284, 26 August 1922, Page 7

A MANIFESTO

BY TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCIL ON PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS The Wellington Trades and Labour Council has drawn up a statement expounding its views ou the subject ot preference to unionists. The manifesto is in the form of a protest against the request of the farmers' organisations for tho abolition of the preference clause. Presumption of Farmers. “A rather remarkable feature of all the reoont Farmers’ Union conferences has been the manner in which they havo dealt with the question of the preference clause which is usually incorporated in the awards secured by the industrial unions of the Dominion, says tho statement. “A careful perusal of the discussions, however, shows that it is not exactly the preference clause to which these discussions are confined, but to tho general question o* awards. It is rather remarkable, that the farmers’ organisations should handle this matter at all, seeing that probably not 1 per centum of the awards in operation apply to their industry in any way, but of late they seem to fancy that all the pies in the Dominion require poking into with their fingers, and this one of the preference clause has received perhaps more than its fair share of handling by our agrarian interests. “It is well to point out to the farmers’ unions that in th(-. bulk of awards operating in the Dominion, between the so-called ‘secondary’ industries and workers’ unions, that tho preference clause has been agreed upon mutually by the parties concerned, and it is in the nature of presumption on the part of the farmers to endeavour to stir up trouble where none has been in evidence in the past.

Farmers Unduly Favoured. “It may be pertinently pointed out that the farmers of this country have a good many preferences which may be brought in question, and in the matter of freights on the railways alone tho general population has to shoulder an economic burden in the farmers’ intel est, which- is .grossly unfair. It might be pointed out, also,, that the Government has made special provision for preference to farmers in the way of training farms, a meat nool, and subsidies for the growing of wheat.

A Reference to the United States. “As has been said, before, the discussions of this question of preference to unionists have shown that it is the general question which which is at issue, and not tho one clause relating to preferenceIt v pertinent to point out to ,our farmers friends that there may be a worst' thing than employers and workers having to comply with the terms of awards, for while these may be irksome at timeei and lead either party to think they are not getting.a square den', usually they are complied with, and patience exercised in cases where they may be bearing heavily on either partv until the time comes for review, when things may be rectified. Compa:-’, this system with what ae have seen in other parts of the world and it io all to the advantage of ou. system. At present we see the y.hole of the business of the U.S.A, within range if being tied up oning to strikes which originated over the question of preference to unionists. The loss entailed on all portions of the community, and particularly the farming interests, bv such a thing is enormous compared with the slight friction which arises from time to time owing to tho operation of awards in this Dominion. 1 Of course there can be no doubt but that the farnr.ng interests are imbued with perhaps an erroneous idea or their political importance in the Dominion, and their desire would appear to be to compel the Government to bring .in legislation to destroy the effectiveness of much of our industrial legislation, and particularly the Aibitration Act, but they may well pnv.se, and consider where such tinkering witii our laws will land the country. “The time has gone for enr when employers mav 'real with thnr workers as slaves, and .f the indiuitr-al legislation of the Dominion is interfered with at tho. farmers’ dictation in the manner suggested, there -an he no doubt but that in a short time we shall he experiencing the same sort of labour troub’es to which America is at present subject, and to which cyery country in Europe has been subject, and to which every country m Europe has been subject during the last few years.”