LABOUR DISPUTES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22288, 25 March 1947, Page 3

LABOUR DISPUTES

FINDING REMEDY freedom in voting CHANCE FOR MODERATES In your leading article on Friday you called attention to our labour troubles, which you rightly called a gi n\c situation” ‘ (writes Mr Thos. Todd in a letter to (he Herald). During the summer we read of 11 steamers lying in the stream at Auckland waiting for a chance to unload. One of these steamers had a cargo of potatoes badly needed in Auckland but they lay in the ship till most of them were unusable. Even worse stories are coming from Sydney of 88 steamers delayed and of salt unobtainable while there is abundance of it in one of these ships, and all this at a time when shipping is desperately needed and a quick turn-round is of the verv greatest importance. ' This is to a great extent the reaction from the time when the employers were "top dog" and used their power roughlv. I myself got the sack' from the Pa’reora Station in 1890 for asking the manager what price we were getting for contract stacking a paddock of heavy wheat. "Its got nothing to do with you. If you are not satisfied, clear out,” he said. "Verv well, sir." I said. I picked up my jacket at the stack, walked back to the camp, packed up and cleared out. Some of mv mates said 1 was a fool to leave in harvest-time, the only time in ail the year when we got decent wages, but they didn't laugh long for the boss sacked the whole "ploughcamp" as soon as the harvest was over. Difficulties of the Majority But the whip is in the hands of the workers now and there is no doubt they are going too far. We only hear occasionally of what goes on behind the scenes among trades unionists, but there is a general impression that the sober, steady-going majority of the workers have a very small share in the control of the unions. In the meetings they are afraid to make themselves prominent A hundred years ago when the landlords held “the big stick", that was the case in ail elections. To vote against your landlord was an unpardonable offence and meant expulsion from your farm and probably from the district. Fully a hundred years ago my own grandfather was threatened with that. It was (he election that was to decide the repeal of the Corn Laws. These laws prevented the importation of foreign grain, even after a bad harvest, until prices reached a level which caused great hardship to all but the well-to-do. Carlyle tells that his father had seen stone-masons, when it came to dinnertime. slink out of the way to keep their mates from noticing that they had nothing to eat. My grandfather saw that these laws were abominable and he voted against them in spitp of his laird's peremtory orders, but the laird respected his tenant for doing what he thought was his duty and kept him in his farm, so there were Todds in Gorthv tin 1915. Still the laird had that power over his tenants until the secret ballot came in.

Virtues of the Secret Ballot It seems to me that labour unions now hold such powers not only over their own members but over the'general public that it is necessary to make certain of freedom of voting in all trades union meetings. Our parliamentary elections proved that freedom in voting was impossible while each voter had to mount “the hustings" and give his vote verbally before the crowd. Election; were a farce until secret voting was introduced. What we need now is a similar reform. a law that no strikes will be allowed unless authorised by a secret ballot in which at least 88 pej; cent of the members voted, and also a law giving every member the right to demand in every union meeting a secret ballot on every important decision. These laws would make it possible for the peactime. sensible members of the union to make their weight tell without fear of co.ise'nuenees to themselves. It would crin'c the extremists.