LABOUR AND FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 6

LABOUR AND FARMERS

1 HOSTILE ATTITUDE. ECHO OF THE 1913 STRIKE. The hostile attitude of certain Waikato labour unions towards the farmers as the outcome of the part played by the latter during the strike of November, 1913, was emphasised in two letters received on Thursday by the executive of the Auckland provincial branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Invitations were sent to the labour unions in question to send delegates to the recent Farmers' Union Conference, and the letters placed before the meeting this week were replies to those invitations (reports the Herald). The secretary of the Hamilton branch of the Auckland Builders, Contractors', and General Labourers' Industrial Union of Workers wrote, forwarding the following resolutions passed by his branch on receipt of the invitation:—''That the attitude of the Farmers' Union towards Labour in the past has been such as to warrant a suspicion on our part that your organisation practically exists for the curtailment of union activities amongst the wage-workers. We do not wish to be represented at your conference, as we fail to see how it is possible fov organisations of conflicting principles to work together harmoniously. Also we do not forget the fact that the .Farmers' Union is equipped as a fighting machine, armed with a fighting fund, for the prevention oE the growth of industrial unionism, and we fail to see how the wage-earning class can benefit in any way by a fuller knowledge of the aims and objects of any such a body as the New Zealand Farmers' Union." The secretary of the Hamilton branch of the Auckland Motor-car and Horse Drivers' Industrial Union of Workers wrote, stating that it was the opinion of the members of that body that, "remembering the organised union-smashing campaign carried out by the Farmers' Union in the 1913 industrial dispute, and since then the everlasting hostility of your organisation to the advancement of Labour throughout New Zealand, we cannot conceive how wage-workers can possibly benefit by an understanding with a capitalistic organisation, which, in our opinion, strives for the absolute subjection of the workers, and therefore we do not desire representation at your conference." Some of. the members present were in favour of forwarding "retorts courteous" to both communications. It was decided, however, that,the more dignified course to pursue would be to merely formally receive the letters. This was approved.