FEDERATION OF UNIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16538, 14 May 1917, Page 6

FEDERATION OF UNIONS.

. ♦ -— REGISTRATION DESIRED. ARBITRATION COURT RULING. The ruling by the Arbitration Court that an association of unions whose members are not engaged in related industries is not entitled to registration under the Arbitration Act was recently confirmed by the Court in Christchurch.' An appeal was made against the refusal by the registrar to register the Canterbury Federation of Unions Industrial Association of Workers, which comprises the following unions Freezing works, enginednvers, firemen, printers' machinists, dairymen s employees, plasterers, plumbers, gasfitters, musicians, jewellers, and gas workers. Mr. F. C. Ellis, secretary to the federation, ' said the Federation of Unions had been in existence since 1908, and had been registered under the Unclassified Societies Act of 1895. It had applied for an amendment of the rules, but this was refused on the ground that the Act had been amended in 1908, the registrar giving it as the opinion of the Crown' law officers that industrial unions and trades unions were not corporate bodies, and could not come under the Act. The individuals in these unions, it was held, must become members of the federation. The organisation had been in existence for many years. " But not under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act," said the president, Mr. Justice Stringer. Mr. Ellis said the federation was the only one in New Zealand, and must have power to sue, for otherwise the unions might break away from the organisation and repudiate' their liabilities. Thero was no difference between the federation and the Trades Council. The president said it seemed tp him that the federation should be able to'gecure what it wanted under the Unclassified Societies Act. A union was a corporate body, and, unless there was a special definition of membership in the Act which intentionally or unintentionally excluded duly constituted trades unions, an improper thing in his opinion, the federation could secure an amendment to its rules, and should be incorporated under the Act, But he did not think that there 1 should be registration under the Arbitration Act, and the Court held that no amalgamation or federation or association of unions could come under that Act unless they were in the samo industry or related industries. .From th'i't decision thero was no appeal. If the federation could not gain its end, it should try to secure an amendment o! tho Unclassified Societies Act.