AUCKLAND CLERICAL WORKERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 21 December 1937, Page 8

AUCKLAND CLERICAL WORKERS

HI SII TO JOIN UNION

HEARING OF DOMINION DI.SHU TINE XT YEAR

I Ur Telegraph —Press Association!

AUCKLAND, ‘.(filli December

A membership of between 4000 and 5000 is expected by Mr A. S. Herring, secretary of the Auckland Clerical Workers’ Union, by the time the rush of applications to join has ceased. In the week since (he award was announced the union office staff has found it difficult to cope with the demands for enrolment by typists, telephone operators, cashiers, and general clerical workers for inclusion in the union roll, for it is compulsory for every person over Ihe age of 18 to become a member.

In Ihe event of the union achieving a membership in (ho neighbourhood of 5000 it probably would be flic largest union in the Auckland province, said Mr Herring. Over 300 had joined within a week of flic award pronouncement by the Arbitration Court. The decision of the Court to award retrospective pay from 18th October to 13th December had come as a pleasant surprise to clerical workers, since the hearing of the dispute had been the subject of protracted delay and some retrospective payments had amounted to £lO in individual instances. Although the award was current only until 6th I-’eb-ruary, 1938. the terms and conditions would hold good until a Dominion award had been determined. Early in the New Year the New Zealand Association of Clerical Workers lo which the eight clerical workers’ unions were affiliated would make application for the hearing of a Dominion dispute, said Mr Herring, and lie expected that with the functioning of two Courts of Arbitration the hearing would not be so long delayed as was the clerical workers’ dispute Ibis year.