BOOT TRADE AWARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17844, 27 July 1921, Page 8

BOOT TRADE AWARD.

s AN ALLEGED BREACH. WORKERS FROM AUSTRALIA. [3V TELEGRAPH.--OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHRISTCHURCH, Tuosday. A case which promises to be of interest to employees of boot manufacturers was called at the Magistrate's Court to-day. It was that in which the Christchurch Operative Bootmakers' Industrial Union of Workers claimed from Phillip J. De La Cour and Phillip Do La Cour, carrying on business in Christchurch as boot manufacturers, under the style of P. J. De La Cour and Son, a penalty of £10 for alleged breach of the Northern, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland male boot operatives' award. The union alleged that the defendants, in ' April employed three workers from Australia, who were not members of the New Zealand Federated Boot Trade Industrial Association of Workers, there being a number of members of that association at the time of such employment out of work and available for employment, the defendants thereby committing a breach of clause 1 of the award. Mr. W„ J. Hunter, who appeared for the union, asked for an adjournment, as the secretary of the union was in Wellington. Ho said the caso was an important on e , for it involved the question ofthe right of New Zealanders to obtain work in preference to men from Australia. Mr. E. W. White, who appeared for the defendant company, said the breach was only a technical one. The Labour Department had looked into the case arid had decided not to take any action. According to Mr. Hunter, on e would thjnk black labour had been brought from Australia. It appeared that the secretary < of the union had gone away to Wellington, when he knew the case'was coming on. Apparently some unions were trying to be a s dictatorial in Court procedure as they had proved themselves m certain other directions. The magistrate granted an adjournment for three weeks.