MEN DEREGISTERED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 24 January 1942, Page 2

MEN DEREGISTERED

SECTION OF UNION FREEZING WORKS NOW AN ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY RESULT OF AUCKLAND ACTION Wellington, This Day. An announcement that that section of the freezing workers’ union employed at the Auckland city abattoirs had been deregistered yesterday was made last night by the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb. The Government, he added, took a very serious view of these holdups, and though it would not flinch in its determination to do justice to those employed it would at the same time insist on the law being observed. Mr Webb said the freezing works industry had been declared an essential industry under the National Service Emergency Regulations. That might be considered by some to be an extreme step, but the circumstances in which the country was now placed demanded nothing short of complete unity in the war effort, for every home was in mourning because of lost ones while others were sacrificing their positions and their opportunities, indeed their very lives. The least the workers of this country could do was to give of their best in the industries in which they were engaged. Their best was little enough compared with what the men at the front were going through to preserve the liberty that gave the right to unite to maintain a standard unparalleled in the history cf the world. “I am positive the actions of the few responsible for instigating these troubles does not meet with the desires of the great mass of the workers of this country,” said Mr Webb. “I would again appeal to the sober-minded men and women to realise that there must be only one Government. The Government will not tolerate * a continuation of these stop-work tactics and any union that violates will be immediately deregistered and those responsible for the hold-up in the industry will be excluded from working in it during the duration of the war.” NOT COMMUNISTS 1 Asked if he attributed these industrial disputes and hold-ups to Communist activities, Mr Webb said: "Certainly not.” A real Communist, he added, if not fighting for Stalin and his Communist comrades in Russia would be pushing on with the work to assist tl»:m all he could from this long (distance. Many of our leading ComImunists joined up with the forces i when Russia entered the war. Some of the white-anters might flatter themselves that they were Communists, but such a type would not be tolerated in Russia five minutes. In Russia the Communists were toiling and putting up one of the most (wonderful fights in the world’s history to preserve those ideals that inspired them. These men, who claimed before Russia entered the war that they were prepared to sacrifice their last drop of blood in the fight for Communistic principles, were now doing their utmost to hinder New Zealand’s war effort and to that extent to scab on their own comrades in Russia as well as on the trade union movement. “Our trade union comrades in Great Britain, Australia* Russia, and America are united in their determination to work and fight for the freedom of democracy,” said Mr Webb. “The Government will do its utmost to cooperate with the trade union movement, which is doing a great job of work in the nation’s war effort, but it will not tolerate these little bands of wreckers. . . While this little country is in very grave danger, whoever stands in the way whethw employer and worker, will be brushed aside, and the law introduced by a Labour Government in defence of Labour principles will be enforced to the limit.” — P.A.