LABOUR ON THE RAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18516, 29 March 1922, Page 5

LABOUR ON THE RAND

UNDERMINING INFLUENCES DECISION OF CHAMBER OF MINES. ULTIMATUM TO TRADE UNIONS. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright, CAPETOWN, March 27. At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Mines at Johannesburg, Mr Buckle (the chairman) said that the system of shop stewards and shaft stewards, who interfered with the work of the employees, was undermining discipline,. It had become a veritable nuisance, and would no longer he tolerated. He laid down the conditions on which the Chamber would recognise the trade unions in future, as follows:—A union must contain a substantial proportion of the particular class of mine employee which it purports to represent. A union, to be properly recognised, must make proper provision for a secret ballot before declaring a strike. The Chamber will not recognise a union whoso members refuse to work with non-mem-bers, or which countenances a strike in order to force employees to join it. Other clauses cover refusal to recognise persons who have been associated “with the augmented executive which conducted the recent strike or the Council of Action as representatives of any union whatever, and refusal to recognise political institutions which claim to be trade unions. The chairman added that as time might be necessary to effect the alterations in the trade union constitutions, especially as regards the secret ballot, the Chamber is prepared to meet accredited representatives meantime without insisting on the prior acceptance of this clause. —A. and N.Z. Cabkx