STRIKE THREATS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25384, 16 November 1943, Page 4

STRIKE THREATS

POWER OF MAJOR UNIONS MR SULLIVAN UNDER FIRE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 15. Replies to statements arising out of the West Coast timber workers’ threat to strike unless their butter ration is increased to lib a week were issued to the press last night by the secretary of the West Coast Timber Workers’ Union (Mr F. L. Turley). “ Replying to the reference made by the Minister of Supply (Mr D. G. Sullivan) to' my tactics, I just want to point out that I personally said nothing about striking.” Mr Turley says. “ I merely conveyed to the Minister, in terms as directed, the unanimous determination of the annual meeting of the West Coast timber workers. If I had given my own opinion on the matter the Minister might have had something to ‘squeal’ about. “ Limit of Incompetence ” “ In my opinion, the butter rationing methods produced by Mr Sullivan’s department are just about the limit of incompetence. I once heard of a Minister going to the south-western glacier region to think, and I believe that a fortnight’s stay in that region by the Minister and his responsible heads might bring something better out. Or has the Minister been so long in a Cabinet position and environment that he has lost touch with the real working class of the country and their environment? If the Minister spent a fortnight as a ‘slabbie’ in a West Coast sawmill and a fortnight in the bush as a ‘ trammie,’ I am sure that butter rationing would be fixed at once. Failing that, the so-called ‘ inflammatory language ’ that Mr Sullivan speaks about would become a pale pink in comparison with his own. “I would like to tell Mr Sullivan that I have not known any Government in this country that could fool all the workers all the time into believing that strikes, or threats of strikes, have not compelled Governments to act. He knows as well as Ido that those unions with some economic power and sound leadership, such as the Waterside Workers’, Seamen’s, Coalminers’. Freezing Workers’, and Shipwrights’ Unions, do compel Governments to act, but those unions that adopt the so-called peaceful methods get very little consideration.” Commenting on the statement by the national secretary of the Timber Workers’ Union (Mr F. Craig), Mr Turley said: “Timber workers will be interested to .know that Mr Graig believes that strikes, or threats of strikes, are unnecessary, but that reasonable methods might be tried to secure adjustments of injustices. We have been trying ‘ reasonable ’ methods for a long time now, and are slipping backward, compared with the fighting unions in New Zealand. Mr Craig states that he has communicated with Mr Seator and Mr Humphreys on the matter, but the West Coast union knows nothing of this, and I would like to know just when Mr Craig did communicate with them. Mr Craig did communicate with the West Coast union aft’er it had acted. Butter Ration Insufficient

"Mr Craig says that the West Coast timber workers were not in possession of the full facts when their resolution was adopted. To this I would say that if Mr Craig has any facts that the West Coast men should have, just why are they not sent along? The one fact that the West Coast timber workers did have was the fact that they had not sufficient butter to enable them to do the work required of them under the climatic and other conditions obtaining.

“Mr Craig says the timber workers realised that butter rationing was necessary. To this I say,” Mr Turley adds, “that I am continually in touch with members of the West Coast branch and have not heard one member say that rationing was necessary. As an industrialist, I say to Mr Craig that in. giving statements to the press on a matter of this kind he should cut out the ‘ sob stuff.’ Politicians can use that method quite efficiently. It only shows the emptiness of Mr Craig’s remarks when he has to play up to the emotions of the people. When he, a union secretary, cries out for a littld more butter because the workers cannot get dripping it makes me wonder just how far we have slipped.”