ARBITRATION SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19806, 29 November 1927, Page 13

ARBITRATION SYSTEM.

EFFECT UPON INDUSTRY. LOSS TO TRADE • UNIONISM. DEADENING OF INTEREST. The deadening of interest in trade unionism was a side-effect of the system of arbitration to which Mr T. Blood worth directed attention in addressing 1110 Economic Society last evening "In the old days unions were con corned not only with wages and conditions for their members, but also with the protection of the trade or craft by which their members lived," said Mr. Bloodworth. "In other words, they were concerned with craftsmanship." A good deal of the complaints now directed against workmen arose from the fact that there was very little pride of craft among the younger workmen That was due, in part, to changed industrial con clitions, but more to the fact that advantage was now not taken of the facilities provided by trade union meetings for the discussion of trade matters.

With the advent of arbitration, Mr. Bloodworth pointed out outside authority had the power to dictate what the rules of a union should be, and work ing conditions became a matter of Court rules, procedure, precedent and semi-legal argument, in which the ordinary member could take littla or no part. Although nominally unions numbered members by the thousand, actually in many cases hundreds and sometimes tens sufficed to denote the number of real unionists. The country had lost thereby tho great corrective critical force which came from the combined opinions of its working people. Value o! Conciliation. Another drawback to arbitration was that it tended to stereotype the present industrial system for good or ill. These two disadvantages were not the ones commonly emphasised, but he was convinced they were of the things that mattered. The Arbitration Court was not a good substitute for trade unionism, and would not give the same results. "I look to tho conciliation part of the Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation Act for any improvements," added Mr. Bloodworth. "We would get a better discussion by conciliation than in the formal atmosphere of a Court. "I do not think there is any other country .where arbitration has been so generally accepted as it has been in New Zealand," continued the speaker. "It is an anomaly that this should be so, because it is the conditions of the industrial workers which are determined by wages. The conditions of the farming community are determined by prices, and farming is our first concern, industry coming second. I think the present agitation against arbitration is largely due to the fact that that anomaly is becoming apparent in consequence of the upheaval which has taken phAre on the markets of the world, where the price of our primary products is determined." Uneven Social Legislation.

New Zealand's experiments in social legislation bad been uneven, Mr. Bloodworth thought. "We led in industrial matters, which, to the national wellbeing, were of. secondary importance," he said. "But our legislation in matters of importance to primary producers, on which the country's whole prosperity depends, has not been of an equally advanced type. In matters relating to ownership of land, rating, development, and in the control of finance and credit arrangements, New Zealand does not lead." The assumption that under arbitration in New Zealand the wages and conditions of industrial workers had advanced to a much greater degree than had been the case in other countries was not, in Mr. Bloodworth's judgment, supported by the evidence. To skilled workers arbitration had the advantage that, nominally, awards were operative in country districts where trade union organisation did not exist or was difficult to maintain. Again, there was the advantage that in depressed periods, such as tiic present, wages did not go below the minimum fixed by the awards. The first advantage, arid sometimes the second, were often lost, however, because of the great difficulty of seeing that awards were observed. Concluding, Mr. Bloodworth said: "Let us be assured that our next steps in tiie matter of industrial arbitration or any other social legislation come not as mere political expedients or as experiments in the dark, but as a result of careful thought given to the problem in the light of the experiences of our own and other countries." Various aspects of the question opened up by Mr. Bloodworth were pursued by speakers in the hour's debate which followed. At the conclusion a hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr. Bloodworth. The meeting marked the conclusion of the society's series of addresses for the year.