N.Z. WORKERS' UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 1, 1 July 1939, Page 18

N.Z. WORKERS' UNION

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

SECRETARY MAY RETIRE

The annual conference of the New Zealand Workers' Union, consisting of some 32,000 members engaged in fields jof industry such as public works, forestry, land drainage, land development, threshing mills, shearing sheds, orchards, opened in the Trades Hall on Tuesday. The attendance of delegates was representative of all fields of the union's activities. The chairman, Mr. Richard Eddy, Wellington, in his report, touched on many topics, and dealt especially with the position with regard to sharemilkers and farm workers. The, organisation of farm workers was a task ahead of the union, and one that must be tackled at the earliest possible moment, he said. ■ ■ - ' The conference granted permission to its national secretary, Mr. A. Cook, to take part in a Royal Commission to inquire into the affairs of the sheep farming industry. The general secretary's report paid particular attention to the necessity for further organisation of lower-paid workers. He favoured the sliding scale method of fixing the wases *?f shearers, whicn nas Deen in operation for some years by agreement between the New Zealand Workers* Union and the New Zealand Sheepowners' Federation, and which had apparently given general satisfaction. He commented on the International Labour Movement which he had studied during his recent visit to Geneva. Some of the most enlightened trade union members he met were from Mexico, the United States, India, Sweden, arid China. Speaking of the Chinese war and the suffering of the Chinese people, Mr. Cook stated that it was his intention to ask the delegates to do something to%assist the Chinese workers in their struggle, "which we, in New Zealand, may have to face in the not distant future." The general secretary's report concluded with a statement that due to ill health he "may not be able to contest the position of general secretary at the next election. This will be a subject of wide regret, not only by members of the conference, bu' by all sections of the union's membership.: Mr. Cook., has been associated with* the union from the dkys, twenty years ago, when it comprised a mere handful of men, and he has seen it grow to its present position as the leading industrial arasnisatiou of the country. He has at all times played a prominent part in its activities, and for the past twelve, years has acted as its general secretary. The conference Is expected to sit until early next week.