Strong Feeling Over Formation Of New Union
[SPECIAL TO STAR] WELLINGTON, This Day. The decision of the Auckland Trades Council to oppose, registration of the breakaway carpenters’ union ■at Auckland has added to the embarrassment of the Minister of Labour, Mr McLagan, in the present dispute. Although vital issues are at stake in the dispute and the tactics of those who started it are not gen'erally approved in the trade union movement, theije is strong feeling throughout the country over the recognition and registration of the new union.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of any dispute may be, there is the fundamental trade union principle of refusal to associate with any organisation set up in the manner of the one in question. Put in simple trade unions terms, the breakaway union is regarded as a “scab” union, and having been labelled as such by many trade union groups and now rejected by the Auckland Trades Council, it cannot expect to find sufficient support to enable it to operate without creating new frictions within the trade union movement.
Disregarding the argument over the merits of the formation of the new union, there remains at stake the major issue in the carpenters’ dispute, namely, the policy of the trade union movement on the observance of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act and acceptance of the decisions of the Court of Arbitration. This issue will be the focal point for the debate on industrial unrest when the annual conferences of the New Zealand Federation of Laboour and the New Zealand Labour Party are held in Wellington in the middle of next month. There has been a report current here that a special meeting of the National Council of the Federation of Labour would be held shortly to consider the carpenters’ dispute. The secretary, Mr K. McL. Baxter, said that no decision on this point had been made. The Carpenters’ Union reports that a full conference of the union will be held in Wellington this week.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1949, Page 6
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332Strong Feeling Over Formation Of New Union Greymouth Evening Star, 26 April 1949, Page 6
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