ADMITTANCE TO UNION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10608, 10 November 1910, Page 6

ADMITTANCE TO UNION.

THE'QUESTION" OF PREFERENCE. J By Telegraph. . > to Oamaru Mail.) Wellington,- November 9. ./f~'l*am going .to ask the Minister of Labor,"'" House ,ivhich''wejalJow K indiscriminate admission 'to the"sVaterside Workers' Union. They are ordered to admit any man who is prepared to pay 5s a year, and.,the result is tliat they are flooded with iuiiI a\va-\ firemen and all sorts of chaiacI 'teis, and you have a mass of nien on the i .water-ffqnt - who, cannot earn a" .living. There „are 500 men on the, water-front at iiytteltdn, but if there were no more than could earn a fair wage they would be not more than 300. No more than that number should be admitted to the Union, i because at present, with a few exceptions, they are not left with a living wage The unions should admit only the number of men required-to do ,thc work that would give every man a Jiving wage." . The Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister of Railw.ns) replied that a union to-day had the right to limit its membership, but not if it had preference of employment. No body had a right to deny a m.ni the right to work. Application after application has come to the Railway Department to increase, the mimboi or Ik ensed carriers on the Lyttelton Wharf, but the Railway Department had refused to grant more than 12, because there would not be a living wage for more. There were far too many men on the wharves, and they were not averaging a fair wage. The question was a very broad one, and to limit membership in one union meant j extending the principle, > and compul- I sory;preference could hot be given. "I