CONFERENCE OF LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 13

CONFERENCE OF LABOUR.

SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION. UNITY OF ORGANISATION. Representatives of industrial unions from all parts of New Zealand will meet in open conference in Wellington next week to discuss questions of importance to Labour. The conference is being called by the Alliance of Labour and will open on Monday. a In a circular issued to the 400 unions throughout the Dominion the alliance suggests that the following should form the basis of discussion :—(1) More efficient national industrial organisation and methods by which the unorganised workers of the Dominion can be organised; (2) the question of wages and conditions of employment; (3) the questions of unemployment and immigration. t The principal subject for discussion, that of organisation, relates chiefly to the question of the merging of the Alliance of Labour and the Trades and Labour Councils, a matter which has received a good deal of attentiori in Labour circles for some months. Two years ago a somewhat similar conference discussed a basis of unity as between, these two organisations, and Auckland and Wellington practically came to an agreement, Christchurch and Dunedin remaining out. Under this arrangement it was provided that unions unaffiliated with the Alliance should become part and parcel of the miscellaneous department of the Alliance of Labour. The advisability of completing the merger will be discussed at the forthcoming conference. Discussing this aspect of the conference yesterday, Mr. J. Purtell, president of the Auckland district council of the Alliance of Labour, said it was very necessary that the workers should have some national industrial organisation, embracing all the elements that were at present divided, nnd so copy the method of the Employers' Federation. Another aspect, often lost sight of. was that a country not possessing a national industrial organisation had no standing at an international Labour conference. Under the heading of conditions of employment special attention is to be devoted to considering ways and means of improving the conditions in dangerous and unhealthy occupations. i The question of the basic wage of the Arbitration Court is also 'expected to receive "Consideration. It is felt in official Labour circles that the increase is not commensurate with increased rents, and that the Court has not dealt with this phase of the matter satisfactorily.