Seven Hundred Carpenters Sign New Union Request

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22916, 7 April 1949, Page 6

Seven Hundred Carpenters Sign New Union Request

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, April 7. Seven hundred members of the deregistered section of the Carpenters’ Union had now put their names to the request to the Minister of Labour, Mr. A. McLagan, for his consent to the registration of a new union, said the secretary of the interim committee, Mr. C. X. Hill, yesterday. The new union would cover carpenters, joiners and joiners’ machinists in the area lying within a radius of 56 miles of the Chief Post Office.

About 500 members of the deregistered union appeared to be supporting the regime of the national secretary, Mr. R. Stanley, said Mr. Hill. There were possibly another 600 members of the union within the 56-mile radius Many of these men were scattered in distant suburbs or country districts. Others found it difficult, especially in face of the intimidatory tactics being employed by'the deregistered union’s officials, to decide what to do.

"In the last seven years of the union’s history these men have come to fear the consequences of disclosing their own opinions and have been taught to vote as the union officials want them to vote,” added Mr. Hill. “They found it hard at this stage to change the habits drummed into them. They were afraid of being black-listed. “Could a deregistered union black-list 700 men?” asked Mr. Hill. “The more men who sign the request to Mr. McLagan, the better for the Government and for eventual harmony and good conditions in the industry.”