INDUSTRIAL REFORMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 15, 18 July 1905, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL REFORMS.

♦ PREFERENCE TO UNIONISTS. [press association.] SYDNEY, 17th, July. A deputation from the Sydney Labour Council urged the Premier (Mr. Carruthers) to make the preference clause effective in the amending Arbitration sai. The Premier, in reply, said the amendj ing Bill would be introduced in about a | fortnight. He believed the measure would commend itself to men who thought dispassionately. He was a strong advocate of arbitration, and the Government would try to make the principles of arbitration more acceptable generally. The Bill would define subjects which might bo fixed by the Court, including fixing a minimum wage for all classes of labour, as well as the question of hours and provision for % aged, feeble, or slow workers. His view was that it would be going too far to say in the law that there should bo preference, but if Parliament said there should be preference to unionists, then that preference must be real and substantial. ' The Premier condemned the political element' in unions. If unions were not associated with political parties he considered they would be in a better position to advocate industrial reforms, as all parties could then assist them.