TIME FOR PLAIN TALK

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 10

TIME FOR PLAIN TALK

Three recent happenings in industrial and political Labour circles hold out some hopes that a check is being made (or at least attempted) to the wasteful and costly delays in productive effort caused by strikes and holdups. Most readers of the newspapers probably noted an utterance by the. Minister of Public Works in Christchurch last weekend. Mr. Semple, as reported, said:

The spasmodic strikes that had been experienced in the country did not come from the majority of members of the unions, 90 per cent of whom were loyal to their country and to then- calling Strikes over trifles came from a. disgruntled minority, which wanted • the most for the least effort. Such an attitude could not, and would not. lie tolerated by the Government that was doing a job to help New Zealand. The country has had a surfeit of these strikes in recent times, and everyone is the poorer for them. In the nine months of the current year to the end of September, no fewer than 56 industrial disputes weie officially recorded—an increase of 33 per cent, compared with last year —and there have been several more since September. The Minister of Mines, speaking on the West Coast a few days ago, spoke in a strain somewhat similar to that of his colleague. Mr. Webb was referring particularly to strikes and stoppages in the coalmining industry, which holds an unenviable record in this respect. Agreements, when entered into (said the Minister) should lie observed by all parties to them. All disputes should go through properly constituted channels for adjustment. If that were done there would be few stoppages taking place throughout, the country, and this would result in a definite economic saying to the industry, (besides guaranteeing the consumer an uninterrupted supply 'of coal. . . . The only justifiable stoppage, in my opinion, is one in which the safety of the men is involved, or in a glaring case of victimization of a man who is deputed to advocate the miners’ cause, and. even this might well be referred to the proper committee, confident in the feeling that the Government would be 100 per cent, behind the man so treated. Unless these stoppages of work were ended, Mr. Webb warned all concerned that the coal industry would find it extremely difficult to withstand the competition of hydro-electricity and oil. In an endeavoui to secure some practical benefits from his appeal, the Minister proposes to call a conference of mine-owners and workers with the idea of evolving a plan for the betterment of the whole industry. The third incident referred to was a motion passed by the workers at the I.ongburn Freezing Works. It read as follows: That, while sincerely sympathizing with the Westfield freezing workers in their recent trouble over the ring system, this meeting heartily endorses the statements of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, and the president, of the Labour I’artv Mr J. Roberts, and the statement of the Minister of Mines, Mr. Webb, more recently, at. Westport, with reference to strikes and the necessity for full co-operation with the Government and the country.

These comments of Ministers of the Crown and the views expressed by the Longburn freezing workers have a significance which cannot be ignored. They suggest an awakening to the folly of recourse to strike measures, and specially to the dangers of lessened production reacting to the detriment of the workers generally. Up to the present time, members of the Labour Government do not appear to have been able to exercise any real influence with the more militant elements of the industrial Labour group; but perhaps that situation is changing. At atty rate, it is a hopeful sign that Ministers are now, if somewhat belatedly, speaking out plainly.