ORGANISATION OF WORKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11843, 21 December 1901, Page 5

ORGANISATION OF WORKERS.

A BANE OR A BENEFIT? I - I MR. JUSTICE COOPER'S VIEWS. j " It in too late to arguo that the organisa- j tion of workers has not been beneficial both to men and masters," interjected Mr. Justice Cooper, President of the Arbitration Court, when the representative of the : ironmoulders was yesterday pressing a witness for some details of what lie considered were the benefits accruing from trades unionism, j His Honor said it had been admitted on all sides :by ' oeonomio • writers, ant! those , who had given the matter the closest attention, : that the ■ combination of: workers had raised the status of the men, and ;largely, benefited ihe employer. It had boon admitted at Home, from' the master's point of view, that it would now be a retrograde step to ;go back to the time when there were no unions. It had come before him in this colony that many employers considered a trades union to bo a most objectionable thing, but the experience at Home was that it was in the interests of the masters to " encourage the organisation or workmen's trades ; unions. . Mr. Hall, the employers' _ representative, surmised that, the employers in New Zealand had still to learn that. His Honor said no doubt they had to learn jt.. . Ho pointed out that the Court ; were in a position to view the matter from a broad standpoint. Their horizon was not limited .by 1 the workman's shops. They had to consider it • from a broad point of view. He remarked that there had been a complete revulsion of feeling;. at Home in favour of combination. Mr. Brown, one of the members of the Court, said the great difference between the English and colonial unions was that the former controlled tho men, and were a great help to the masters. For instance,' they would expel a man for drunken habits in his master's time. . His Honor pointed out that. the Legislature distinctly approved of unionism, and the Arbitration. Act was passed for tho purpose of encouraging and regulating the. formation of unions. . ■ • Mr. Hall admitted that, but did not think the framer of the Act had any idea of the extent to which it would bo pushed. - His Honoi was inclined to think that the framer (tlio Hon. W. P. Reeves) had in his mind tlio possible wisdom of giving the power to regulate tho conditions of trade from time to time even before there was any fear of a strike. Mr. Hall said tho employers were in the learning stage just now, and the continual friction with the men had made the lesson a bitter one.. 1 His Honor did not think the statement that the Act had caused general bitterness should bo allowed to go uncontradicted. There was some bitterness, but hits experience was that the bitterness was confined to one or two trades only. Tho Court had had experience in numerous trades; and in many cases the men and masters had met; together and assisted the Court in making a mutual settlement of tho difficulty, without any bitterness at all.. Certainly, there had been a great deal of bitterness in the iron trade, but his experience had not been that the Act had caused a feeling of bitterness generally throughout the colony. •