Secretary Of Onion Speaks To Employers

Northern Advocate, 11 March 1948, Page 5

Secretary Of Onion Speaks To Employers

DUNEDIN. Thu. (P.A.)—An organisation of employers seldom asks a union secretary to address its annual conference, and even less often does it ask him to answer questions after such a talk.

The unusual course was adopted yesterday, however, at the annual conference of the Master Printers' Federation of New Zealand, when the national secretary of the Printing and Related Trades Union (Mr R. S. Thomas) flew from Wellington at the request of the federation council to address it as a guest speaker.

The council of the federation, said the president (Mr J. M. Somerville) had unanimously decided that Mr Thomas should be asked to attend the meeting.

In introducing Mr Thomas, he spoke of the need for greater understanding of each other’s problems. Mr Thomas, for his part, assured the conference that the invitation issued to him by the federation had met with the unanimous approval of the union executive.

Getting together for talks and questions was one of the best ways he knew of increasing cooperation between employers and union members, and of creating a feeling of confidence in each other that was so necessary for harmonious working. The theme of his address was cooperation in industry. After his address he answered a number of questions from members of the federation.

Mr C. P. McKenzie, of Wellington, who moved a vote of thanks to Mr Thomas for his talk, said it had been a very real contribution to the conference.

Mr Thomas returned to Wellington this morning.