INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12584, 20 August 1901, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The wise counsel of Mr W. P. Reeves s when leaving the colony to the . employers and employed not to abuse the great boon conferred upon them by the Industrial Conciliation Bill seems to be hardly realised. Anyone acquainted with Labour and Trades Unions must be aware that they have hailed' the advent of such a beneficent measure. You say in a leader: “ But in spite of all this, the workers have lately shown a disposition to rush off to the Conciliation Boards and the Arbitration Court on the slightest provocation or on no provocation at all.” I would Tike to ask where eke can they go when the employer refuses to meet them in endeavouring to adjust any little difference connected with wages? From the tone of said article one would be inclined to think that the workers were almost, glad) to resort to the Arbitration Court. Let not the public be deceived as to the real' cause. In nine cases out of ten, when a ; misunderstanding occurs, ’it is owing to the* 'employer violating, in some way or other, the standard statement of wages. A casein point: A good workman is paid a certain wage for a particular kind of work; an inferior craftsman, on the same kind of work, is l expected by the Unions to obtain the same pay. The public, not being critical judges of said article, are satisfied. Nob so the employer, and instead of discharging him as incompetent for that class of work, or finding him' some other inefrior, puts up with it in order to pay a lower wage and obtain equal profit for first-class work. Tbe Unions get to know and hence the dispute.—l atm, etc., H.C.