DAIRY LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 146, 21 June 1916, Page 4

DAIRY LABOUR

A REGISTRATION TO BE CAN CELLED.

QUESTIONING AN AGREEMENT.

Mr E. Moss (Eketahuna) brought up at the Dairy Conference, at Palmerston, yesterday, the action taken by the New Zealand Dairy Association in I'egard to an agreement recently made with dairy workers in the Wairarapa district. He complained that the association was countenancing the tactics of three men who were going about the Dominion to help in forming one big union of farm workers. These men were not dairying workers, and had no standing among them. He said an agreement had been made through their agency with, dairy employees in the Wairarapa. H.e feared that the association might have power to bind the whole of. the North Island. 'An agreement had been entered into and. signed by Mr. Harkness, secretary of .the association, with the three men and a, union that had no legal standing. He considered this dangerous to .the .dairying industry. Two members of the association also signed that .agreement, .and they instructed the secretary to sjgn. Mr. Moss held this to be inimical to the industry. He therefore moved " That the registration of the National Dairy Association under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act be cancelled."'

. Mr. J. Mart asked if the meeting was in committee, and the Chairman (Mr. Morton) replied "in the. negative. Mr. Moss, continuing, said, considering the class of men they had .to deal with, they wished to p.ut every trouble they possibly could m their way. The Chairman said the matter only concerned the Wellington and Wairarapa districts, and the association was registered under the Arbitration Act only in so far as it concerned those districts.

Mr Moss said he had always got on very well with the men.

Mr. Harkness explained that a certain union was started, in the Wellington district known as the A. P. Union, and it cited every factory in the Wellington district for an increase of wages. The association itsejf was • not cited. There were twenty-two factories represented, and the matter was discussed, a. committee being formed. This committee met the men and made with them a first-class agreement. The Farmers' Union found out what ' had been done,: and disap? proved. But surely if the Farmers' Union held it to be its right to unite all its forces in one big union -it could not logically, deny the right of the_ men to form themsely.es into one'big union. The committee was appointed .to do the work, and it.did it. The Farmers' Union claimed that the committee was not pro-' perly constituted; but a good agreement was made, and that having been done, the ..employers, as horiaura'o.le men, should carry it out. ,!. ■ ' . Mr. Moss: Too' good an agreement. .'Mr. Harkness : You can't do'away with, it. But I have a great objection to fanners' unions endeavouring to settle matters affecting dairy factory workers. •• Mr. Fisher (Carterton) objected to the Farmers' Unions interfering. The agreement made by the factory directors and the men was being honourably observed on both sides. Moreover, _Mr. Moss himself agreed to the committee entrusted with the negotiations. Mr. Moss said he had no desire to see a, wall raised between the interests of the1 dairying iudustry and the Far-., mers' .Union. They were all farmers. What he objected to was coming to sn agreement with' men who were very astute, and with no real interests of the dairy workers at heart; but all they wanted was' recognition by the association.

. The motion for cancellation of the registration of the association was carried.