F.U. Fears Compulsory Membership

Northern Advocate, 13 June 1938, Page 9

F.U. Fears Compulsory Membership

I. Per Press Association. - - Copyright.] INVERCARGILL. This Day. Fearing that new members brought inti' I lie Farmers’ Union by compulsion measures might be numerically strong enough to outvote the present membership, the Southland Provincial Conference of the Farmers’ Union defeated a remit that compulsory unionism should be adopted. i i There was no danger in compulsory ! unionism; rather, the danger lay in , the control of the union, stated Mr G. Clearwater. If the powers of union j secretaries wore kept within bounds, j there would be an improvement in j the control of the labour unions. j Opposition to the remit was voiced j by Mr A. W. Stevens, who said that j compulsion would bring into the ' Farmers’ Union men who might be undesirable as members. Some of the j labour union members now felt that i compulsory unionism had its draw- j backs, in that they could not exclude j a certain class of member who might ■ not be entirely in sympathy with their aims.

If the membership of the Farmers’ Union were made compulsory, said Mr W. H. Ward, it might be that those made members by compulsion would be able to outvote the present membership. Such had been the experience with labour unions, the membership of which had increased through compulsion from <IO,OOO to 200,000.