BIG STICK WAVED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22198, 7 December 1946, Page 8

BIG STICK WAVED

POSITION UNTENABLE

BLOW AT COMMISSION

ATTITUDE OF EMPLOYERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, (Dec. 7,

Commenting on the statement of Mr. H. Barnes, president of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, that it was the unconciliatorv attitude of the employers' representatives on the commission which resulted in a deadlock being reached at Wednesday's meeting, Messrs. Almond and Belford, employers’ representatives, pointed out that the position was simply that Mr. Barnes had tabled a typewritten statement notifying the commission that until _ a decision on the guaranteed wage satisfactory to the union was given, and certain other concessions _ made. _ a 40-hour week and an overtime strike would be imposed by the union. The employers’ representatives took the view that the decision of the chairman on the guaranteed wage was sound and lawful, and, as the union’s representatives had announced that they would only accept a decision satisfactory to them, to suggest that the chairman’s decision be scrapped and the whole matter reopened placed the employers’ representatives in an impossible position. This meant that unless they were prepared to accept what the union's representatives considered was satisfactory to the union, the decision would again be left to the chairman, and his decision was already made and rejected by the union. In any case, there was no justification for an overtime strike having been instituted to force an alteration to the decision, and no self-respecting commission could deal with the matter while the strike continued.

In the opinion of Messrs. Almond and Belford the waterside leaders have made it abundantly clear that they had no time for the commission. They felt that the union leaders must know that they cannot have a commission which will sign on the dotted line every time the big stick is raised and, therefore, it appeared that what the waterside leaders really wanted was to wreck commission control in the same way as the last commission was wrecked.