WATERSIDERS’ UNION

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1929, Page 8

WATERSIDERS’ UNION

MEMBERSHIP TEST CASE. (Per Press Association.) ■ CHRISTCHURCH, December 5. Victimisation was alleged, by Edward Gillard in his suit for £5O damages against 'members of the Committee of the Waterside Workers’ Union at Lyttelton for the loss of work owing to their refusal to permit him to become a member of the union. • Gillard also moved ior an order directing the committee to admit him to membership. It was alleged that plaintiff first applied for membership on September 15, 1928, tendering an entrance fee of 5/- and a half yearly subscription of 15/-, and had repeated his application several times, without success. , For the defence it was argued that the union roll was limited to 700 members and there were no vacancies. Gillard alleged that the number on the roll on the date of application and on many subsequent dates had been below 700. , Plaintiff, in evidence, said he fiact gone to law only after repeated fusalis of admission to membership. He had been told that, once he had a chance of admission, but he would never be admitted if he went to law. For the defence,. John Flood, Secretary of the Union denied that Gillard tendered the proper fees when he applied for admission. The case was adjourned till to-mor-row.

GREYMOUTH MEMBERSHIP. The Greymouth Waterside Workers’ Union, at the monthly stopwork meeting, held yesterday, decided to . increase the membership from 170 to 180. Complaints were made recently by shipping agents, regarding frequent shortages of labour on the wharf, as the full number of union member, 170, was not always available. The decision to add ten members to the roll is evidently the consequence. The demand for labour has been keen during recent weeks, owing to the periodical rushes of shipping at the port. If the visits of vessels could be regulated, so that only three or four were at the wharf at the same time, the supply of labour would be plentiful, but recently it has not been uncommon to have eight or nine vessels in port at once. There was no difficulty experienced in securing the additional ten members, as the union has a waiting list of three or four times that number of men.