FREE OF AWARDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24826, 28 January 1942, Page 4

FREE OF AWARDS

MINERS DEREGISTERED UNION’S OWN REQUEST DISSATISFIED WITH COURT By notice in the latest issue of the Gazette, the registration of the Inangahua Gold and Coal Miners’ Industrial Union of' Workers at Reefton under the Industrial Conciliation Act, ’925. has been cancelled. This step was taken at the request of the union, and the effect is to dissolve the incorporation of the union. The action of the union in applying to have its registration cancelled is, it is believed, without precedent in the industrial movement on the West Coast, and as a result the union ceases to have recourse to the Arbitration Court. Labour Disputes Act

This places the Inangahua Union in a similar position to other mining unions on the West Coast. In the event of a dispute occurring at any of the mines in the Inangahua district covered by the union, the matter will come under the Labour Disputes Investigation Act, 1913. which applies to all groups of workers not incorporated and not bound by an award. The Labour Disputes Investigation Act provides that where a settlement of a dispute is not reached after 14 days, a secret ballot of the workers is taken on whether a strike should take place. In an interview. Mr J. McGregor (secretary of the Inangahua Gold and Coal Miners’ Union) said that the union’s application for cancellation of its registration was the result of intense dissatisfaction with the Arbitration Court, dating back to the time that the union obtained its last award, in November, 1940. The union no longer desired to be bound by the conditions of the Arbitration Court, but instead sought to come under the Labour Disputes Act by the cancellation of its registration. New Agreement Sought

The award of the Arbitration Court ceases to exist with the cancellation of registration, and the union will proceed immediately to obtain a new working agreement by direct negotiation with the employers. The procedure to be followed is laid down by the Labour Disputes Investigation Act. and provides for the appointment of an independent chairman to arbitrate between the parties in the event of an agreement not being reached by direct negotiation. The Act also provides that seven days’ notice must be given of a legal strike. The union, which covers the majority of the gold and coal mine employees in the Inangahua district, had been registered since 1896.