COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22964, 20 August 1936, Page 5

COMPULSORY UNIONISM

TO THE EDITOIt.

Sir, —Jn your "Answers to Correspondents" in this morning's Daily Times you reply to " Wondering" as follows:—" Workers who are covered by the provisions of an award or industrial agreement are compelled by law to join a union. Managers and foremen arc exempt from this compulsion." I wish to point out that this statement is not correct as far as some foremen, also as far as some managers are concerned. Managers in branch shops receiving less than £3OO per year are deemed to be shop assistants, and therefore are covered by the provisions of the shop assistants' award. Foremen in woollen mills are covered by the woollen mills' workers award regarding their conditions of work, if not in wages. Therefore they come under the compulsory clause of the Act, which provides that they must become members of their respective unions.—l am, etc., VV, W. Batchclor. Trades Hall, Dunedin, August 19. [The Minister of Labour may not, of course, be the most accurate interpreter of the labour laws passed at his own instigation. At the beginning of the month he said:—" I am surprised that there has been any suggestion that managers or foremen should be forced

into unions. It is very doubtful whether many unions desire them to be members or would even admit them to membership." Referring to the misunderstanding on the question of the compulsory enrolment of foremen and managers, Mr Armstrong said that "it seemed to him that an endeavour was being made to place an interpretation on the Act that was never intended." Where journeymen are employed as working foremen and are covered by an award or industrial agreement they will, of course, be subject to compulsory unionism. Where foremen are direct representatives of employers and are in charge of departments, and are not covered by an award, it is surely neither necessary nor desirable that they should be forced compulsorily into unions. The Arbitration Court may possibly hold a view which is not altogether in accord with that of our correspondent— Ed. 0.D.T.1