Demands Of Manifesto Signed By Trade Unionists

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23218, 1 April 1950, Page 5

Demands Of Manifesto Signed By Trade Unionists

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 31. The abolition of compulsory unionism and compulsory military training and the repeal of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act are included in demands in a manifesto signed by a number of trade union secretaries and prominent members of unions in New Zealand.

So far it has been signed by representatives of the Auckland branch of the A.S.R.S., the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union, the Auckland Drivers’ Union, the Auckland Plumbers, Union, the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union, the Wellington Carpenters’ Union, the Wellington Engineers’ Union, and the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union, as well as delegates to the Auckland Trades Council. “Ninety Years Behind"

The manifesto is issued because its signatories state they consider the 15point policy recently issued by the Federation of Labour was “50 years behind the Waihi strike or 90 years behind the times."

The policy proved that the present leadership of the federation was completely out of touch with workers, says the manifesto, which charges the national executive of the federation with “trying to square Labour’s defeat by blaming the militants," and with attempting to commit the Labour movement to “the farce of stabilisation.” A wage and social security increase of £2 a week and a reversal of “the present unequal distribution of incomes” are among the demands. To achieve this end the signatories pledge themselves to “fighting for worker control of the waterfront, mines and railways, along with public ownership of cement, freezing and fertiliser works, coastal shipping and all insurance companies and banks.”