EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8470, 22 January 1891, Page 6

EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

Yesterday afternoon the first annual meeting of the above association was held at the Harbour Board Offices. Mr. C. C. McMillan, president, occupied the chair.

Mr. F. G. Ewingtox, secretary, read the minutes of the last meeting and the annual report. The report narrated the incidents which had led up to the unionists in New Zealand leaving their occupations, and then proceeded :—The emergency called into existence in the great centres of population in Australia and New Zealand Employers Associations, and nowhere did they act more promptly or unitedly or do more good than in this colony. At Napier and Gisborne Free Associations of Employers and Workmen have been formed, and are in full vigour now, the former having, it is said, a membership of several hundreds with a reserve or guarantee fund of about £14,000, and the latter a great many members with a similar fund of about £4000. Strangely enough some work-people who claim the right not only of forming unions, but of coercing free labourers to join them, question the right of employers to combine even in self-defence ; but employers should not merely assert their right, but should also assert for free labourers the great principle that no bodies of men have a right to coerce them to join unions against their will. The interests of civil liberty require that. Had it not been for free labour, the industrial strife might have been prolonged. The report then referred to the Labour Conference, and proceeded :— The Association is formed by the Employers of Labour with the object of providing a recognised body having authority to deal deal with the authorised and responsible representatives of labour, who shall bo empowered to settle any differences in all matters affecting their common interests, and with a view to the amicable adjustment of all differences between employers and employed ; also to secure the benefit and protection of its members, and unanimity of action in regard to all matters affecting the interests of employers, and to empower them as an organisation to deU with such matters as they snail deem necessary to carry out the objects of the Association. Our constitution provided for the repreI sentation of the various trade and indus- ' trial interests, but the rules, on being found to be crude and inadequate, were amended, and will require your approval. The amendments were indicated by underlines in the copies sent to each member. Some very important alterations have been made, the principal bein£ provision for the establishment of Boards of Conciliation, the sending of delegates.® to conference of employers and employees in other places than Auckland, the better representation of members by delegates, and the extension of general operations when 5 desirable. Some ambiguities have been removed, the appointment of a vice-president provided for, the month for the annual meeting definitely fixed, and other minor amendments are made. The Association now comprises 99 members, representing the largest and most influential merchants and manufacturers in Auckland. The boot manufacturers, the master tailors, and the grocers and storekeepers have affiliated with this Association ; others are thinking of doing so, and it is gratifying to know that already the " boycott," which was once so much dreaded, proves harmless to any members of this powerful Association, whose course ot action it approves and directs. But it is hoped that all members will exert themselves to get other employers to join it, because unity is strength. Since the formation of the society, there have been on an average a meeting every week either of the general members, delegates, executive, or a sub committee, and frequent correspondence has taken place between ours and the other Employers' Associations throughout New Zealand. Good service has been rendered by your Association in printing and distributing throughout the colony the law in New Zealand respecting strikes and combinations, in acting in concert with the other associations in matters affecting our general interests, in getting the electoral rolls purged, and in watching over the industrial interests of Auckland. Your executive are happy to report that an effort on their part to.get the Trades and labour Council and the Knights of Labour, as representing wage-earners, to join with this Association in forming a Board of Conciliation for Auckland, has met with such warm approval as augurs well for the success of the undertaking. It will be one of the first duties of the new executive to meet representatives of the above two organisations in friendly conference to arrange preliminaries for the forming of a Board of Conciliation to settle industrial disputes, and try to avert strikes. Satisfactory arrangements have been made with Mr. F. G. Ewington, secretary, to carry on the work of the Association at such a minimum cost as will enable us to defray salary, office rent, printing, postage, stationery, and other expenses for about £90 a' year, unless some extraordinary trade difficulties arise. The expenses in establishing the Association are shown in the balance-sheet, and it is only necessary to remark that the expense is always greatest in starting any new project. The executive considered the desirability of opening a free; labour bureau, but decided that it is inexpedient at present. The balance-sheet was then read as follows : —

Dr.—Subscriptions, £129 Mis ; Emergency Associations balance, 10s : Total, £130 6s. C'r. —Postages, £2 17s Id ; telegrams, £5 6s 8d; printing and advertising, £9 lus 6d ; stationery, £.1 14s 9d ; miscellaneous, £32 6s ; salary, £54 ; balances, £20 6s ; bank, £17 8s 4d ; cash, £2 17s 8d : Total, £130 6s.

On the motion of the President, seconded by Mr. R. Salmon, the report and balancesheet were adopted. Mr. A. H. Nathan moved that they be printed and circulated amongst the members. The President said that he was expressing the mind of the executive is testifying to the zeal and discretion of Mr. Ewington as their secretary. He then spoke as follows :—The progress made by the Employers Association since its formation has been highly satisfactory. Employers have proved they are able to combine for mutual protection, when the occasion arises. This Association is only one of the many associations throughout New Zealand, but all have worked together in thorough unity, and nothing has been done in the working of these associations without consultation. When fiction has been taken we have all moved as one man, our maxim being " United we stand, divided we fall." THE ASSOCIATION. This Association numbers 99 members and firms, representing the principal merchants and manufacturers in Auckland. The progress of other associations have been equally remarkable, not only in point of numbers, but in the formation of guarantee funds. For instance, a small place like Gisborire, shows a guarantee fund of £4000, while that of Napier amounts to the handsome sum of £14,000. THE LATE STRIKE. It is pleasing to observe that the effects of the recent strike are in a measure passing away, but I am afraid it will be a long time before the class bitterness will be removed which the late strike has so intensified. 'J hat the strike was a terrible mistake is now admitted by most of the trade unions, as they feel there was nothing to justify it. Men admitted that they had no quarrel with their employers, that their wages were good,and hours of labour not excessive ; yet because of an edict from the Maritime Council,men at oncegaveup their situations without the slightest consideration for the interests of employers, and the only reply we could elicit was " that the Maritime Council ordered a strike, and strike they must." Men toast of their liberty, of the right of man as long as he keeps the law to do as he pleases, but have we ever had such a piece of merciless tyranny, and abject, slavish submission as was displayed by the .. members of the trades unions in the autocratic fiat of the Maritime Council ? It was pleasing to observe that some men refused j to submit themselves to this yoke of bond- j age, decided to be free men, and kept loy- j ally to their employers. Personally, 1 , sympathise with many of the men, who i were uncertain how to act. On one side i they ran the risk of losing their situations, | and their best friends, and on the other ! had the threat of the boycott held over j them. The fact is, this Association ought i to have been started when trade unions were first formed. It would have exercised ; a restraining influence, especially over the i j extreme agitators, who are the most active i j in creating ill-feeling between employers , ] and employed. i

CAPITAL AND LABOUR. 1 Of the evil effect of strike*, an eminent j American statesman, Mr. Blaine, says:— The aim should be to maintain just relations between labour and capital, guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict in the past has always led, and will always lead in the future, to the injury of both. I Labour is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of capital, and capital inJ creases the efficiency and value of labour. Whoever arrays the one against the other is an enemy of both. That policy is wisest and best which harmonises the two on the i basis of absolute justice." These are sound views, and should be the aim of employers and employed. WHAT THE STRIKE HAS COST. Ib is difficult to estimate the enormous loss to this country by New Zealand people interfering in a strike which ought to have been confined to Australia. We were just recovering from a prolonged depression, employment was active throughout the whole country, when suddenly the sky was darkened, and labour troubles commenced. Had prudent counsels prevailed we would have been simply spectators of the conflict. Our surplus produce by thousands and tens of thousands of pounds would have passed into Australia, our coalfields would have nad an unprecedented output, and we could have attracted capitalists to our shores by showing that here, in this favoured land, capital and labour could go hand in hand for mutual advantage. But the opportunity was missed, and we are so much the poorer. Perhaps the most serious injury occasioned by the late strike is the bitter class feeling that has been created. To be an employer is a man to be avoided, as a person determined to injure employees, and the most abusive language is used in denouncing him. While on the subject it will not be out of place to quote the words of an able writer—"lt is becoming a habit with labour leaders to denounce every large employer as a bloated brute, gorging himself, like the ogre of a fairy tale, on the blood and flesh of his operatives; to consider him a safe subject for libel, and to hold him up on every occasion (often by name) as a just object of hatred and contempt. Employers are pretty tough, but they are growing more cultivated, which means, for one thing, more sensitive to opinion, and they will not in the end bear to be pilloried every day, in order to earn, by the use of a most valuable faculty, that of organisation, less than they could make for their money while travelling, or studying, or asleep. If the torrent of obloquy continues, and the employer is to become what the landowner was once in France, the object of all popular hate and scorn, decent men with money will shrink from industrial enterprise, as they would shrink from the few profitable trades, which carry with them, like pawnbroking, something of social derogation. Better four per cent, and peace from an investment in bonds than six per cent, for industry, with every industrial regarding you as a deliberate bloodsucker of the poor." It may bo answered that men having their capital invested must keep their factories going, as they cannot realise. There was never a greater mistake. Is it likely that a manufacturer will continue his business, when every stocktaking shows a deficiency, owing to excessive demands ? Certainly not. A prudent business man will face his loss at once, knowing right well that if he does not it is only a question of time to reduce him from an employer to the ranks of the employed, and already we hear instances of men who absolutely refuse to invest money where labour is a condition of success. Some men think this question only affects trades unions and their employers, and therefore, do not trouble themselves to think much about it. This is a mistake. It affects every man, woman, and child in the community ; be- I cause we are all members of one body, and what injures one part of it injures the other. It is, therefore, of vital importance that labour and capital should work for mutual advantage. To illustrate my meaning, I may here quote a fable used by an old Roman called Menenius Agrippa, when a civil war was threatened between the patricians and plebians. It is its follows : —" There was a time when all the members rebelled against the belly. 'It is not just,' said they, ' that we should labour as we i do in our several ways, and all for the benefit of this idle good-for-nothing belly, which lies at its ease in the middle, and does nothing but enjoy itself.' They, therefore, agreed together to do no more work for the belly. The hands should refuse to carry any food to the mouth ; the mouth should not receive any, the teeth should not chew any. Thus they would starve tho belly into a greater activity. But even as they did so they found themselves enfeebled and emaciated, and they then perceived that it was to the belly they owed the support of their own life, and that if it received much, it also distributed to all the other members the nourishment which they required." This fable was readily applied by his hearers, and they acknowledged that the two classes of citizens were dependent one upon the other, and that neither could do without the other. Does not this fable exactly represent the position of labour and capital ? THE LABOUR TARTY. It is also a matter to be deplored that a new political party has been formed, known as the labour party, sending into Parliament, labour candidates, with the special object of legislating for labour as against capital. Why was it our best men refused to come forward as candidates ? Because the whole labour party Wits arrayed against them on the sole ground that they were men of capital and therefore men to be kept out of Parliament, It is yet to be seen if the labour party have improved their position by the class of men they have sent into Parliament. Would it not have been better to have sent men who had be en successful in their various trades or business ; men of clean records, and unsullied reputation, rather than men who having nothing to lose, have everything to gain, and are apt to become political adventurers ? THE CONFERENCE. As you arc aware the Government summoned a meeting of employers and employees to settle all labour disputes. The conference proved an utter failure owing to the position taken up by the labour party in refusing to allow unionists to work with free men. The employers, on the other hand, insisted upon their right to employ whom they pleased, and are determined at all hazards to protect the free labour employed by them. Employers recognise the right of trade unions to combine for self protection, but they do not recognise the tyranny of any class to dictate who only are to be employed, the rate of wages, or the hours of labour. These matters must be mutually arranged. Could anything be more arbitrary or more insulting to employers than the action of the Carters' Union some time back in fixing prices for carting without any notice to employers or regard for their interests? They simply sent a printed circular to employers, and virtually said, " These are our terms, and if you do not accept them we shall either boycott you or call your men out." Is ib any wonder that some men think that courtesy and fair play are qualities utterly lacking among trade unions ?

CONCILIATION. I am glad to say that a better spirit now prevails. The employers and the Trades and Labour Council have agreed upon the principle of Boards of Conciliation, and 1 believe this is the true solution of labour difficulties. If both parlies meet in a fair and equitable spirit, strikes should be averted and jmce and harmony prevail. Of one thing 1 am convinced, that it is the desire erf this. Employers' Association to create and maintain good-will amongst the employed. Bub we have certain rights, and these rights must be maintained at nil hazards. , AGREEMENTS. In making future arrangements it is of the utmost importance that agreements should bo made lor a fixed period—say, one, two, or three years—to create confidence and remove the fear of a possible strike. If after the agreement either party finds he lias I made a bad bargain, knowing it is only for ■ a short time, he ought to accept the inevii table ; but before the expiration of the | agreement, the aggrieved party could give ; notice—say, six months'—for an alteration, |so that matters might be adjusted. In | conclusion, I express the hope that 1891 ! will be distinguished by the absence of all j labour troubles in this colony, and that by mutual good-will all class animosities will j disappear. j The secretary was instructed to convene i a meeting of delegates to elect a president, , vice president, and executive committee, in i accordance with the rules.