LABOUR MATTERS IN AUCKLAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 85, 10 April 1912, Page 3

LABOUR MATTERS IN AUCKLAND

VIEW OF THE EMPLOYERS. Mr. A. Campbell (Campbell and Burke), president of the Wellington. Builders and Contractors' Association, 'who has just returned from Auckland, where his firm are erecting new premise* for the Public Trust Department, states that the general public in Wellington seem to be under a misapprehension as regards the stand the employers are' taking in Auckland in the labourers' dispute. The employers, he says, have never refused to meet the men in their emploj meiit ; in fact, the correspondence which has pus&fd between them plainly shows the willingness of the cmployeis to hold a conference with their employees. But the members, of the Federation of Labour were the people who wished to meet tho employers, men ;hi> do not belong to 'Auckland, and 'he know nothing about the conditions ol trade in that centie. The employers are ju&t as willing in Auckland as they are in Wellington to hold v conference with their employees. "Take th-e case" of the building trades' labourers in Wellington." fcaid Mr. Campbell. "We met our employees before the Conciliation. Commissioner, and drew up an agreement satisfactory to both parties, and this agreement (the beet of its kind in ths Dominion) was made an award by the Cciu't last week, and we are now woikijig under it." Mr. Campbell questions whether any agreement made with the Federation of Labour weald befuul. Supposing, he iays, the employers of Auckland had met tho fedeialion, and mack* an agreement to last two \eyrs, and contractors undertook' contracts extending own* that time, thinking the wjgci fjueiii-cn was .-eltled long enough lv- eimblo timn to complete their contracts ; six months after they broke theuvagreement and obtained a further vise, aud before the work was completed a. 'still further me tcck place, what would ba the position of these coati actors? ' "Tho federation of Labour,'' added Mr. Campbell, "having failed to brinn tho Mayer of Auckland (Mr. Parr) and the employers to their way of thinking, is now endeavouring to make out that the fight is not between the federation and employers, but between Unionism and Capital, so as to enlist the sympathy of the trades unions on their side. As I have stated, employers have no dc-s-ire to fight the various unions and are at all times willing to meet and discuss business with any particular trade • or industry. Tho builders' associations throughout the Dominion, however, do not intend to , have any dealings with the Federation of Labour or its executive. We look upon this organisation as a usuiping power, which has received borne pnoourajrement thiough its power? of bluff and threats, but it may as well bo clearly understood th-.it £he employers — these, at leari, with -whom 1 am concerned-? arenot going tq__b? tcircsd " '"* ' " ""*