UNION QUARREL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24448, 6 November 1940, Page 8

UNION QUARREL

DISMISSED WORKERS SOUTH ISLAND MAIN TRUNK VIOLATING NATIONAL AGREE- -- MENT PLAIN* TALK BY MR SEMPLE (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 5. The points that the public works employees had asked for preference for unionists and that he was not interested in any domestic quarrel in the union, were emphasised by. the Minister of Public Works. Mr R. Semple, in a telephone interview at Whakatano with the Christchurch Press to-night on the dismissal of workers on the South Island Main Trunk railway. “I don’t run their union, and I am not going to say to the men who refuse to take out union tickets that they don't run the public works in the process of running their union,” declared Mr Semple. “How they run their union is not going to worry me, but if they think they are going to run the public works that is not going to suit me. They are not going to run the department to patch up quarrels with their own organisation. After preference to unionists was given them I have had to carry it out. I cannot employ non-unionist labour on public works, and I am not going to allow them to be unionists to-day and nonunionists to-morrow. They have to be unionists all the time.”

The statement that Mr Eddy, president of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, requested him to put into operation clause 34 of the agreement, requiring; all workers to be members of a union, was not true, Mr Semple said. The first, he Jheard of men refusing to take out their annual tickets was while he was in Christchurch a week ago. At that time, before, he had seen Mr Eddy, he had decided that unless the men complied with their agreement they would not lie allowed to work.

The Preference Clause , “I am not a scrap concerned about their own union quarrel,” the Minister said. “ That has got nothing whatever to do with me. 1 am concerned about the agreement that has been drafted between their representatives on the one hand and the Public Works Department on the other hand, signed by me and- their representative. The request for the preference clause for the unionists in their agreement came from the men themselves through their representatives. I agreed to their request and embodied section 34 in the agreement. They are now trying to use the very clause they put into the , agreement for their protection against non-unionist labour to force me to interfere in their own domestic quarrel in their union. In other words, they are prepared to break . their agreement, to ignore the fundamental principles of preference to unionists when it suits them. They cannot have it both ways. I have strictly adhered to the agreement since I have been in charge of the Public Works Department, and I have adhered to every principle in the agreement and I have Insisted that the union should do likewise. Not Concerned With Quarrel “If any section of the union was allowed to violate any principle contained in the agreement to please them without any true regard for the rest of the membership and to ignore completely the Minister in Charge of Public Works, the agreement would become a farce and they would be back to rafferty rules,” Mr Semple said, "and that cannot happen so far as I am concerned. I repeat again that I am not a scrap interested about their union quarrels. They have their remedy without violating any agreement. The preference clause was given to them at their own request. As it suits them they want to become nonunionists themselves, in other words to black-leg their own agreement. So far as I am concerned they are not going to do it.” The only thing Mr Eddy had requested him to do, Mr Semple added, was to extend the. time in which the men could join the union, first from Thursday, October 31, to Monday, November 2, Mr Eddy had actually asked him to extend the notice for a further week, but, > said Mr Semple, he acted on his own responsibility. Mr Eddy was not his adviser, and his responsibility was to see that the agreement was carried out to the letter. He asked no one to share that responsibility. He took it himself. , “Every trades unionist in New Zealand who understands the fundamental principles of unionism has fought consistently for preference for unionists,” Mr Semple concluded. “ That preference has been conceded to these men in their own interests and for their own protection. Now they want to use it as ,a waddy in their, union dispute and to violate a national agreement. I would'not be fit to be in the position lam in if;l tolerated that conduct on the part of any group of men, and I am not going to tolerate it.”

MAJORITY HOLD OUT SOME WORKERS PAY DUES iPer United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 5. All the men employed on the South Island main trunk railway construction north of Kaikoura who had previously refused to take out membership tickets to-day became financial members of the New Zealand Workers’ Union. About 250 workers on the section comprising Taratuhi. Oaro, and Puketa maintained their refusal to purchase tickets until their grievances with the union were settled. The number of men who bought tickets to-day on the section north of Kaikoura was more than 90. They began work at their usual hours, and there was no hold-up of construction on that section. South of Kaikoura no work was done by the larger number of men affected. Only about 17 men were reported to be working on the whole of that section. Bridge and tunnelling work was held up, and the whole staff at the fitting shop for the southern section at Oaro, a s well as the carpenters’ shop, was idle. A letter was sent on Monday by the workers threatened with unemployment until they purchased tickets to the Minister of Public Works, Mr R. Semple, asking him to suspend the dismissals until such time as he had heard the men’s side of the case. Their views were also forwarded in a telegram to the Minister of Labour, Mr P. C. Webb. Messages asking for assistance had also been sent to several members of Parliament, including Mr S. G. Holland and Mr W. A. Bodkin, who is visiting North Canterbury. No replies had been received by 4 p.m. The men decided to-day definitely not to go back to work until the questiofi of the appointment of organisers is settled. Mr D. D. Popplewell, Oaro section secretary, said: “We have had some advice legally and if the reply of the Minister of Public Works is unfavPurable we will fight our case through the courts.” Mr Popplewell said the men who had already returned to work had done so under a misunderstanding, and promised full support to those who were now unemployed.

* “ LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE ” VIEW OF DEMOCRATIC LABOUR LEADERS cpEFi United Press Association) HASTINGS. Nov. 5. The Democratic Labour leaders, Mr W. E. Barnard, M.P., and Mr J. A. Lee, M.P., have sent a telegram to the Minister of Public Works (Mr R. Semple), expressing the hope that “ political influence will not be used to dragoon the group of workers on the South Island Main Trunk who have a legitimate grievance, which should be investigated before the power of the State is invoked to fortify headquarters against the rank and file of members of the Workers’ Union."