CHORUS OF PROTEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26532, 6 August 1947, Page 4

CHORUS OF PROTEST

Secret Ballots on Strike Proposals OPPOSITION FROM UNIONS Industrial Correspondent, * WELLINGTON, Aug. 5. The National Council of the Federation of Labour has unanimously declared itself opposed to those terms of the Government’s new amendment to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act which provide for compulsory secret ballots on strikes. Members of the council, after a long sitting to-day, went up to Parliament Buildings to-night presumably for the purpose of putting to the Government in clear terms their opposition to the amendment as brought down in the House by the Minister of Labour, Mr McLagan.

Union leaders from trades councils in practically every industrial centre have raised their voices in chorus against the secret ballot clauses. It has become apparent that, if the legislation in the terms advanced by Mr McLagan is proceeded with, it will have the support of the parliamentary Opposition in the House, but will place a further strain on the present uneasy relations between the Government and some sections of the industrial Labour movement. Union leaders from several centres declared to-night that if the Government proceeded with the amendment, there would be an immediate move to organise protest strikes in industry. It is the general opinion among unionists that the terms of the proposed amendment are incompatible with those of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act as it stands, and that the amendment would so confuse the law on strikes that it would prove impossible to apply it. The National Council of the_ federation will continue its meeting tomorrow.