OFFICIAL CONVICTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26713, 6 March 1948, Page 8

OFFICIAL CONVICTED

STRIKE REGULATION BREACH

CARPENTERS' UNION LEADERS ON TRIAL

P.A. WELLINGTON, Mar. 5. A chorus of boos and hisses from the public gallery of the Magistrate’s Court in Wellington to-day greeted a request by Mr W. R. Birks, appearing for the prosecution—following the conviction of Walter Francis Molineause, a Carpenters’ Union official, on a charge of encouraging a strike—that the court administer a penalty which would “ deter others from similar action.” Mr J. H. Thompson, S.M., imposed a fine of £2O. The incident was the climax of a hearing occupying most of the day in which three orlicials of the Wellington and Hutt Valley branches of the New Zealand Carpenters, Joiners, and Joiners’ Machinists’ Union were charged with breaches of the Strike and Lockout Emergency Regulations, 1939.

Mr Birks said that a meeting of the Wellington and Hutt Valley Carpenters and Joiners’ Union on February 17 and a pamphlet signed by E. L. Tregoweth and James Laidlaw led to charges of incitement to strike and procurement of a strike against Ernest Lionel Tregoweth, secretary of the Wellington and Hutt Valley Carpenters and Joiners’ Union, who was charged that on or about February 17 he procured a strike within the meaning of the term as defined in the Strike and Lockout Emergency Regulations, 1939, and also that he incited members of the union to strike.

The evidence would relate to the award governing the employment of carpenters and joiners in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, said Mr Birks, showing that a stop-work meeting on February 17 was a strike and illegal. The union members had not attended their work as usual.

Eric George Flack, a builder, gave evidence that only six of his 10 carpenters had worked on the morning of February 17. Three had turned up in the afternoon and one the next morning. He had lost half a day’s value of work as a result. Cross'-examined, witness said that his jobs had been delayed from time to time by a shortage of materials. Thomas George Fielder, inspector of factories, produced a copy of the current New Zealand (except Otago and Southland) Carpenters and Joiners’ award made on July 7, 1947. The award held no provision for the holding of stop-work meetings in ordinary working hours. Detective-sergeant Neil McPhee said that at 9 a.m. on February 17, with Detective Harper, he called at the Time Theatre where there was a notice indicating that a carpenters’ meeting would be held. At the door a man was asking for the production of cards from those entering the theatre. About 11.15 a.m. some men left the theatre, and five minutes later the main body of men left. The only witness called for the defence was E rank Throssel, president of the Vfellington branch of. the New Zealand Carpenters’ Union. . He said the union’s rules gave power to the branch secretary to call a meeting of members at any time. To Mr Birks witness said a meeting was called by the society on February 17 under the instruction of the union executive. It was called by a pamphlet, signed by the defendant and J. Laidlaw. Mr Arndt submitted that the charges should be dismissed on the grounds that the meeting did not constitute a strike within the meaning of the regulations, and that there was no proper legal evidence that the defendant had incited union-members to be a party to a strike. . . The magistrate reserved his decision. James Laidlaw, secretary of the Hutt Valley sub-branch of the union, was charged with incitement of the Hutt Valley members of the union to be. parties to a strike and also that he procured a strike. The evidence for the prosecution was on much the same lines as in the preceding case. The magistrate again reserved his decision.