LABOURERS’ UNIONS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 18

LABOURERS’ UNIONS

Hawke’s Bay Dispute with Wellington DECISION BY BALLOT Among questions discussed at a national conference in Wellington last week of the General Labourers’ and Related Trades Union was the dispute between the Wellington and Hawke's Bay unions over membership. For some time there' has been a dispute’on the issue whether certain workers residing in Hawke’s Bay should be members of the Wellington union or the Hawke’s Bay union. It is understood that the conference directed that all legal proceedings concerning the dispute should be discontinued. Thd men affected were asked to indicate by postal ballot which union they desired to join. Another question was whether the county councils award applied to the Hawke’s Bay union. The Wellington union held that the Hawke’s Bay union was not a legal party to the award. The point was to have been decided by the Court of Arbitration when it next sat in Napier. Another issue was whether the Hawke's Bay union had jurisdiction over labourers employed by local bodies. The conference discussed other questions, including the action by the Hawke’s Bay union against the Hawke’s Bay County Council, which was stated to be in the nature of a test case. The action, it is understood, will be suspended pending the result of the ballot on the membership question.