CLERICAL WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 74, 21 December 1937, Page 12

CLERICAL WORKERS

Rush To Join Auckland Union ' DOMINION DISPUTE EARLY NEXT YEAR Dominion Special Service. ' Auckland, December 20. A membership of between 4000 and 5000 is expected by Mr. A. S. Herring, secretary to the Auckland Clerical Workers’ Union, by the time the rush of applications to join has ceased. In the week since the award was announced the union office staff has found it difficult to cope with the demands for enrolment by typists, telephone operators, cashiers, and general clerical workers for inclusion in the union roll, for it is compulsory for every person over the age of 18 to become a member. In the event of the union achieving a membership in the neighbourhood of 5000 it probably would be the largest union in the Auckland province, said Mr. Herring. Over 300 had joined within a week of the award pronouncement by the Arbitration Court. The decision of the court to award retrospective pay from October IS to’ December 13 had come as a pleasant surprise to clerical workers, since the hearing of the dispute had been the subject of protracted delay and some retrospective payments had amounted to £lO in individual instances. Although the award was current only until February 6, 1935, the terms and conditions would hold good until a Dominion award had been determined.

Early in the New Year the New Zealand Association of Clerical Workers to which the eight clerical workers’ unions were affiliated would make application for the hearing of a Dominion dispute, said Mr. Herring, and he expected that with the functioning of two Courts of Arbitration the hearing would not be so long delayed as was the clerical workers’ dispute this year.