“WRECKING TACTICS'' CONDEMNED— Minister Warns Unions At Auckland

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1949, Page 2

“WRECKING TACTICS '' CONDEMNED— Minister Warns Unions At Auckland

■ . WELLINGTON, March 9. ' ‘"‘The Government takes the most serious view of the attempt by an irresponsible section of 'the Carpenters’ Union to defy the authority of the Court* of Arbitration, and to endeavour by direct action to force employers to agree to demands which the union has been unable to obtain by constitutional means,” said the Minister of Labour (Mr A. McLagan) today. “Even more seridus is the attempt by officials of some other unions to widen the dispute into a general industrial stoppage by their actions in boycotting the handling of essential goods, including food for Britain. Such tactics will not be tolerated.

“Should these boycotting and wrecking tactics continue, the Government will take whatever action may be necessary to ensure that the economic life of our country is not disrupted by a' small group, whose sole object is to destroy our established and orderly system of industrial conciliation and arbitration, and to promote strife in industrial relations and chaos and hardship in the community. “I sincerely hope that before the Government is forced to take emergency measures for the preservation of the people’s welfare and for the discharge of our obligations to our kinsfolk overseas, the good sense of the rank and file members of unions concerned will prevail, that our well-tried and beneficial system of arbitration will be upheld, and that the illegal and disruptive tactics at present being adopted will be abandoned.” Appeal Endorsed The National council of the New Zealand Engineers’ Union at its meeting at Wellington today passed the following resolution:—“This council endorses the Federation of Labour’s appeal to the carpenters and considers they, should immediately hand the dispute over to the national executive of the Federation of Labour in order that a speedy settlement may be made in a dispute which is now seriously affecting other affiliated unions, including our own. Our union believes in settling disputes by conciliation and arbitration.” , „ The £1 levy on members of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Union was a voluntary levy, not compulsory, said the branch secretary (Mr E L Tregoweth) this evening. The Labour Department had expressed the view that a compulsory levy was illegal. Watersiders’ Attitude

Auckland watersiders today completed loading butter on to the food ship Fordsdale from wagons which arrived at the port before their ban on handling dairy produce became effective, but wagons of cheese, lamb, and meat sundries from freezing works not affected by the ban still remain on the wharf to be loaded on to the Trojan Star. Meat from freezing works in other parts of the province with the exception of Southdown will still be handled by the watersiders when they resume work on the waterfront, but no further dairy produce from the King’s Wharf cool stores will be handled. The watersiders, drivers and railway workers’ unions will stop handling any dairy produce going into the Auckland Farmers Freezing Company’s cool stores on King’s Wharf and the export wharf as from midday tomorrow. This time was fixed ,to avoid loss on consignments in transit to the stores by road rail, and sea. M? „ ~ The boycott against thefj Southdown works of the Farmers Freezing Company has now been in force for two days and no stock is going to the works and no frozen meat is being sent out from the works. Meat from the Westfield, Horotiu, and Moerewa works, which are not under the union’s ban, is still being railed to Auckland for shipment. No work was done today on discharging the freighter Northumberland after the dismissal of 15 men on Monday for refusing to unload soda ash for the glassworks, hub of the banned concerns, and the watersiders’ refusal to work the ship on Tuesday. More than 200 watersiders are now on penalty through refusing to work

the ship and this dispute has been handed over to the Waterfront Industry Authority in Wellington for a decision. The authority will meet when the members have assembled in Wellington. Other ships in port were worked normally today. Bus services will stop tomorrow afternoon during the stop-work meeting of trade unionists. Two thousand drivers are being called to the meeting. 800 Dismissal Notices

All glass production at the penrose works of the New Zealand Glass Company stopped at 11 a.m. today. Notices of dismissal have not yet been served on employees. The glassworks were picketed by the Drivers’ Union today. From tonight, all employees of the Auckland Master Carriers Association are under notice of dismissal. This affects 800 men. The notice served on the union that this action would be taken unless the boycott imposed on certain firms was lifted expired at eight o’clock this morning. No reply was received from the union.