ONE BIG UNION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 10 September 1925, Page 9

ONE BIG UNION.

PROPOSAL REJECTED. ARGUMENTS OF ADVOCATES. TRADES UNION CONGRESS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Sep. 10, 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sep. 9. Though the one big union idea was rejeteed decisively, it proved to have a substantial backing. The motion was really' a back-door method of securing what the congress refused to the extremists on Tuesday, that is, machinery for a general strike. To-day the miners and raihvaymen brought their big stick to bear, hence the motion’s defeat. Mr Dukes (General Workers), in moving the resolution, claimed that the idea of a single union did not mean that it would be used for a general strike or any revolutionary object. It would simply give power to meet the super-organisation which . employers were building up. Mr Taylor (Compositors), while favouring fewer unions, said that unions should first organise by industries. Mr Tillett, the best-known supporter of the motino, in a racy speech, said that- if the unions do not hang together they would hang separately. Replying to an allegation that the single union would result in trade union bureaucracy, Mr Tillett claimed that he was not but to manufacture haloes for heroes. One union would not mean dominance by the big five.—A. and N.Z. Assn.