MUCH INTEREST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26792, 8 June 1948, Page 4

MUCH INTEREST

PRESS AND UNIONS REPORTING OF DISPUTES Industrial Correspondent WELLINGTON, June 7. The practice of inviting the press to union meetings, which was adopted by the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Tramway Employees’ Union during the tram strike, has aroused much interest here. Only rarely is the press accepted on the “inside” in trade union discussions in Wellington. In fact, the Southland Trades Council, the West Coast Trades Council and the Dunedin branch of the Tramways' Union are among the few and are perhaps the only trade union organisations which invite the press to attend meetings. It is considered among some national trade union officials that the unionists’ point of view would be far more widely circulated and their case in disputes far better understood by the public if this practice were widely adopted. The admission of the press to union discussions and the fair reporting of them, is considered to have been an outstanding feature of the Dunedin dispute. Decision to invite the press to attend its meetings was reached by the national council of the New Zealand Federation of Labour during the recent carpenters’ dspute. Deep-seated distrust of press reporters among some of the older trade union officials has, however, given little hope for the continuance of this- policy. Many of the “ old hands ” in the industrial labour movement still love to dramatise the life they lead. They believe, as in the old days of trade unionism, like conspirators rather tnan as ordinary citizens folding perfectly legal and often most important meetings. The Southland Trades Council, in particular, has been noted for the manner in which it has approached the subject of publicity. Its reports on current problems in the trade union movement are read with keen interest well beyond the Southland province.