Preference to Unionists

Hastings Standard, Volume XII, Issue 4126, 8 April 1909, Page 6

Preference to Unionists

PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. Wellington last night— At a, meeting of the advisory board of the New Zealand Employers Federation the following lOi-uluLicn was minniniunsly carried : "Whereas the Arbi tration Court has in various industrial disputes granted a modified form of preference to members of unions of workers, winch has; been actively opposed by employers al- - they have at all tires insisted upon their rights to engage workers best qualified to perform the work required oi them, ami the Arbitrat'on Court having receutly shown a disposition to impose upou

employers much greater responsibility in regard to the employment of workers than has been cast upon them previously, and the president of the Court, having intimated that in his opinion it is the dutv of em-

ployers, to refase to employ workers unless they become members of Unions, the advisory board of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, after Having consulted all the affiliated bodies, desire to publicly intimate that employers of this dominion do and always will, resent and oppose, to the utmost, any attempt to restrict their undeniable right to select their workmen or to compel them to force unwilling j workers into the unions. Further:

In view of the above facts and danger of further restriction being imposed by the Arbitration the advisory board strongly urges all employers of labour to strenuously oppose the inclusion of the preference clause in all future awards and industrial agreements "