DUNEDIN AND SUBURBAN LABORERS' UNION.

Evening Star, Volume 12869, Issue 12869, 19 July 1906, Page 7

DUNEDIN AND SUBURBAN LABORERS' UNION.

A meeting under the auspices of the above union was held in the Trades Hall last evening. ■' The Chairman (Mr j. Thomson, presi-"" dent of the union) explained that themeetinc had been called by circular sent out to the general laborers throughout the City and suburbs with the object of explaining to those present the benefits to be derived from unionism, hearing any grievances, and formulating the best method of rectifying them. Mr Arnold * as r , to nave beeD present, but was absent in Chnstchurcb. The meeting had been brought about by Mr Steve Boreham, who had been instrumental in bringing these matters before the General Laborers' Union, a body which, though it had only been in existence for eighteen months, had done good work. Within three months of the Union being formed a case had been filed to be heard before the Conciliation Board, and had received very favorable recommendations, but these had not been satisfactory to the masters. The masters would not agree to them, and the matter would come before the Arbitration Court. They had been waiting a sitting of the Court for a lone time, which was the fault of the Government in not making better provision for hearing industrial disputes throughout New Zealand. It would be, perhaps, better if there were two courtsone for the North Island and one for the South.

Mr Boreham, in the course of his remarks, said there were contractors now in Dunedin going round the most hard-up workers trying to induce them to start pick-and-shovel work at 7s a day. Speaking from personal, experience, he declared. that the co-operative system, as carried out by the colony, was one of the most perfectly-legalised sweating machines that had ever come under his notice. Complaint was next made that the City Council had sacked there or four workers and voted £1,500 of the ratepayers' money to retired officials, who, he contended, had been overpaid for their services. The time had arrived when the. workers should be represented in the Citv Council, flrom the moment the contractor tendered he anticipated making his profit out of sweating the worker. It was their duty to let men in the Old Country, many of whom were being allnred to "the colony, know the actual position of affairs here. He suggested that a deputation should wait on the Premier during his visit to Dunedin next week. They would.have 750 men on the labor market very shortly. If the men joined the union emplove'rs would be able to engage them direct, without "the intervention of the labor agent, to whom the Working man had to pav a fee which he could ill afford. Mr Barclay, M.H.R., agreed with Mr Boreham that so lone as there was a sufficiency of labor locally the policy of paying people to come out from the* Old Country would have the effect of flooding the market. It was a policy that did not seem to have any common sense or justice in it. There was hardlv a day passed but some man came to him and said he could get nothing to do, and had done nothing for weeks. Regarding men getting 7s a day from Contractors, that would continue so long as the men were not all banded together in a good, strong union, and so long as they had men pouring into the labor m-rkct. The man who did not join the i'i*m and stick to it was blind to his own interest, and if the present process went on for a very Ions: time, as the population increased the condition of the unorganised worker would become worse and worse. He urged all those not already belonging to the union to join, pointing out that any request coming from a large body of men met with much greater consideration than when backed up by a mere handful. Mr Dowdal stated that he had been working with others on the Main Trunk line for a month, and had never received a penny, for his work.

( Mr White moved, and it was resolved—- ' That this meeting instruct Mr Boreham to write a letter to one of the large newspapers in the Old Countrv, givine a detailed account of the conditions of labor in _ this colony, and also the cost of living." A vote of thanks to Mr Barclav for attending and giving an address closed the meeting.