LABOUR PROBLEMS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2086, 29 March 1922, Page 5

LABOUR PROBLEMS.

AND TRADE CONDITIONS. ENGAGING WORLD-WIDE ATTENTION, RAND PROPOSALS, [By Electric Cable—Copyright] [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received Tuesday, 7 p.m.) CAPETOWN, March 27. At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Mines at Johannesburg Mr Buckle (chairman) said that the system of shop stewards and shaft attendants who interfered with the work of the employees, undermining discipline, had become a veritable nuisance and would no longer be tolerated. He laid down conditions on which the chamber would recognise trade unions in future as follow; —A union must contain a substantial proportion of the particular class of mine employees it purports to represent; workmen’s unions are not to be recognised as representing officials; the latter must not be members of workmen’s unions; a union to be properly recognised must make proper provision for a secret ballot before declaring a strike; the chamber will not recognise a union whose members refuse to work with non-members or which countenances a strike in order to force employees to join it. Other clauses cover the refusal to recognise persons who have been associated with the augmented executive which conducted the recent strike or the Council of Action as representatives of any union whatever, and the refusal to recognise political institutions claiming to be trade unions. The chairman added that as time might be necessary for the alteration of the trade unions’ constitutions, especially as regards a secret ballot, the chamber was prepared to meet accredited representatives in the meantime without insisting on prior acceptance of the clause. ENGINEERS’ LOCK-OUT, FURTHER HALF-MILLION IDLE. (Received Tuesday, 7 p.m.) LONDON. March 27. The engineering employers refused to suspend the lock-out, pending negotiations. The situation is most serious and a further half-million members affiliated with the trade unions will be locked out this week. TEXTILE INDUSTRY. STRIKES IN AMERICA. (Received Thursday, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 27. At Lawrence, Massachusetts, 10,000 textile workers struck, refusing a 20 per cent, reduction in wages. Similar strikes throughout New England threaten to paralyse the textile , industry. SHIPWRIGHTS CALLED OUT. LONDON, March 27. Owing to the Liverpool shipowners accepting a national reduction of wages without granting facilities for local discussion, the Mersey men were called out to-night.