RIGHT TO COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 10

RIGHT TO COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Removal By Cancellation STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF LABOUR The fact that the cancellation of the registration of a union under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, as he had threatened in his statement on Thursday, would completely remove the right to demand compulsory unionism of workers in that industry was emphasized by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Webb, in reply to an inquiry last night. Speaking in the House of Representatives on Thursday night, the Minister said that organizations, whether of workers or employers, Which were not willing to abide by the previsions of the Act would render themselves liable to deregistration. “If the registration pf a union is cancelled,” the Minister said, “it will follow naturally that its right to demand compulsory unionism, as provided for in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, will be removed. It will still be possible for workers to band themselves together outside tie scope of the Act—and it is possible that some may prefer it that way—but any body which is constituted in that way will have no right to demand that all workers in that particular industry shall be members. That is a privilege which is enjoyed only under the Act,”