OPEN UNIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15503, 9 January 1914, Page 9

OPEN UNIONS.

Sir,— Herald, in its " Plea for Open Unions," has strongly emphasised the assertion that the right of every man to work is recognised by the law. It says, "No union is allowed to act so that "any man is prevented from accepting whatever employment is open to him." And again, "A man may work wherever work is available for him.' It _ seems to me, however, that many a man is prevented from working as he is best able to by our industrial laws, and by the action of the unions supported by those laws. Unless a man join a union he is regarded as an outcast. He cannot make what terms suit him best with his employer, and he is prosecuted if he acts in ..any way contrary to the rules of the union which the law indicates he should join though he does not wish to. Surely there is nothing wrong in a man endeavouring to remain his own master and as a free agent to do the best he can for himself, and if so, why should he be deprived of work and the right to work because he does not happen to be a unionist? In some unions a man is prohibited from doing more than a certain amount of work in a given time. Why cannot he do as much as he can if it pays him better than crawling at the union's legalised pace. I need not go farther for an instance of the onesidedness and injustice of things in the labour world than to refer to the frequency of prosecutions for paltry "breaches of awards " in the case of unfortunate individuals, while no action ■whatever appears to have been thought of in. ; ,the case of those unions whose leaders have lately called a strike illegally and occasioned so much loss to the country and unhappiness among genuine workers. John Halliwell. St. Heliers Bay.