“BLUFF”!

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 122, 8 February 1923, Page 6

“BLUFF”!

ALLIANCE OF LABOUR’S STRIKE BALLOT

The Alliance of Labour ballot on the question of striking as a protest against the wages reductions is referred to in the January issue of The Industrial Bulletin,” the New Zealand Employers’ Federation monthly. “A good dctil has been appealing in the newspapers of lato,” the magazine states, “concerning the ballot which has been conducted by 'the Alliance of Labour to ascertain whether members are prepaired io strike in the event of what they describe as a further fall in wages. It is one thing for a man to say that he is in faiour of a strike and rather a different thine for him to say tha.t he will strike. On tho first question he probably icels that he is participating in a bluff which might or might not come off. It costs him nothing to say ‘Yes,' and so long as tho situation is kept under his control it will cost him nothing if the bluff fails. The danger begins when, having registered his general approval of what he very likely conceives to bo a pure bhiff, he hands over his liberty of future notion tojus union executive. He may bo bluffing, but his leaders may bo pursuing a different objective altogether. They may, in fact, be preparing for some sort o f attempt at a coup which in general lesults would involve the unfortunate individual who filled in his strike ballot paper in appalling poverty and hardship.”