THE FATE OF TRADE UNIONISM

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7319, 24 December 1910, Page 6

THE FATE OF TRADE UNIONISM

A CRITICAL’ JUNCTURE. . DISRUPTION FROM WITHIN. FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, LONDON, November 11. Trade unionism has undergone « partial breakdown, and its whole future’ is at slake. That is the only conclusion one can draw from the present situation in the industrial world. The Welsh miners' riots are a symptom of a movement which is far beyond local in. character. The strike hr South Wales, like the strike of the bodlennakers hi the North of England, is .an act of mutiny ‘ against . trade unionism. In each case there is a broach of an agreement, and a breach condemned by the men's representatives. The second ballot of the boilermakers during the present week has thrown over the union officials even more decisively than the first. The strikers are striking- not only against their employers, but also against their own unions.' This 1 revolt .agungfc trade unionism froin within is threatening the whole principle of collective bargaining, and invalidating all the machinery of conciliation. The action of. the boilermakers is just aa ominous as that of the Welsh miners, although there is no violence in the yards as there is at the Welsh coal pits. As "The Times” puts it, ‘'this silent and determined repudiation of collective bargaining and conciliation is even more eloquent of the breakdown of trade unionism than the mad violence of the Welsh colliers.” -