THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. FRIDAY FEBUARY 18, 1949. Thrust-And-Parry At Auckland

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1949, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. FRIDAY FEBUARY 18, 1949. Thrust-And-Parry At Auckland

The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, designed to promote peace in industry by giving fairplay to employers and employees alike, is again being challenged.

The Auckland branch of the Carpenters and Joiners’ Union, whose leaders claimed that injustice had been done to their members, de-

manded payment ol 2jd an hgur more than the Court of Arbitration fixed as the ruling wage two months ago.

This demand not being granted the union adopted a go-slow policy.

The employers thereupon declared that if the go-slow order was not countermanded they would dismiss all carpenters and joiners who failed to work at the normal rate.

This warning was ignored, and some 2000 carpenters and joiners were paid off yesterday, much to the regret of employers and of men who had been in their employ for periods of up to SO years.

The stage is thus set for a struggle which, as is invariably the case,

will be costly to all concerned unless it is ended without delay.

However, a principle of fundamental importance is at stake, for it is obvious that if awards of the Arbitration Court, upon which representatives of employers and workers are included, are not obeyed by either of the parties which does not get all it asks for, thei;c must inevitably be a • return to the rule of “tooth and claw,” which is was hoped would be ended by means of legislation providing for the judicial settlement of disputes. It is to be feared that some militants in the Labour movement would welcome a return to the bad old days when strikes and kindred methods constituted the only means by which disputes could be settled.

Sensible men and women, recognising what industrial conciliation and arbitration legislation has done for them, and what it may do in the future if it is strengthened along right lines, will regret any untoward incidents calculated to create chaos in industry.