“UNDEMOCRATIC”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 16 April 1945, Page 3

“UNDEMOCRATIC”

AMALGAMATION OF UNIONS QUESTION OF DISPOSAL OF ASSETS. Auckland, April 13. Complete dissatisfaction with the recent amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Engineers’ Unions into an organisation covering the whole of the Dominion has been expressed during the last few weeks by many of the members in Auckland. They feel that the formation of a New Zealand union was conducted undemocratically. and that they have lost their independence. Opinions have been expressed forcibly during the last few weeks, and matters came to a head this evening, after about 100 of the men had been denied the right to hold a special meeting to discuss their grievances. They gathered at the Trades Hall to .attend the special meeting, but after they were shown a film, the president of the Auckland branch of the new national union (Mr F. Catt) announced that under the rules of the New Zealand union the meeting could not be held, because two executive members had challenged the legality of the meeting held by the men on the previous Friday evening. At that meeting the men had passed a motion to be forwarded to the registrar in Wellington condemning the undemocratic method of the formation of the national union. DEPUTATION TO NEWSPAPER After the cancellation of to-night’s special meeting, a large deputation of engineers waited o* the “New Zealand Herald.” It was led by the former president of the Northern Engineers’ Union (Mr A. Gilbert) and Mr S. G. Jones, of the Skilled Engineers’ Union. The rank and file of engineers in Auckland were not consulted about the amalgamation, and were actually denied the right to vote on the issue and on the nomination and selection of the officers for the national organisation. said Mr Gilbert. It was true that a ballot was taken six years ago, when the membership was much smaller than at present, but it was merely to determine the feeling on the question of a national organisation. At that time. Auckland withdrew from the amalgamation proposals because of points which were now in the rules of the new union.. The amalgamation was recently brought into being by a group of delegates who had arranged the whole thing among themselves without reference to the members as a whole, said Mr Gilbert. Most of the members did not even Tcnow -that the amalgamation had been effected until they saw the, reports in the daily papers. SURRENDER OF. BRANCHES* PROPERTY Mr Jones said that one of the main reasons for dissatisfaction, apart from the procedure adopted about amalgamation. was the provision that all property built up by branches should become the property of the New Zealand union as a whole. Branches were required to deliver all property to a general trustee. Under these rules, the Auckland engineers would have to give up £7OOO in cash, a section in the centre of the city worth £2OOO, and about £IOOO worth of equipment, including a car, said Mr Gilbert. They had to do this, not because they wished to. but because a small group had willed it. The meeting this evening was called as a special meeting to discuss union affairs, and after it was cancelled, the men asked, under the Auckland rules, for a special meeting to deal with the union officials concerned in the amal- . gamation.. As stiinilated in the Auckland rules, ' 1,7, names' - were attached to the requisition for the meeting, but the men were told that the Auckland rules no longer applied, and 1000 signatures were necessary under the new national rules before a special meeting could be held. The men who signed the requisition decided that, if they were denied the right to hold the meeting, they would approach the Supreme Court’ in the matter.