REPORT TO UNION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27093, 30 May 1949, Page 4

REPORT TO UNION

TRAMWAYS PRESIDENT \ CARPENTER’S DISPUTE AND CONSCRIPTION RESULTS OF CONFERENCES

Compulsory military training and the carpenters’ dispute were subjects discussed v at length by the president of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Tramways Union, Mr W. B. Richards, during a special meeting of union members yesterday morning. Mr Richards, who returned from Wellington on Friday, spoke for more than an hour, reporting in turn on the conferences of the national tramways union, Transport Workers' Federation, Federation of Labour and Labour Pa A. t3 motion to endorse Mr Richards’s report was before the meeting at the time when it had to be adjourned until next week because some members were to work- in the afternoon. Should this motion be adopted, the union’s policy will be clear on three issues: it will oppose peacetime conscription, it will support the locked-out carpenters, and it will not recognise what it terms the “ scab ” carpenters’ union.

Speaking of conscription, Mr Richards said that both the New Zealand Tramways Union and the Transport Workers’ Federation had expressed their opposition to it. The Federation of Labour had not had time to consider the question. “ The referendum compromise reached by the Labour Party was a good one,” Mr Richards continued, "but the Prime Minister through a press report was placed in an invidious position. It had been stated that he wanted an answer, and it appeared that the one he was given was the one he did not want.” The president said the referendum would probably see the Prime Minister and members of the Opposition ranged on one platform and some Labour Party members on another. “Can you tell me that that will be in the best interests of Labour? ” he asked. Mr Richards requested the union to reaffirm its attitude of opposition to conscription. He also reported in detail on how the carpenters’ dispute occupied the attention of the conference of the Federation of Labour for the greater part of four days and spoke of the cleavage that had occurred in the conference because of the dispute. In resentment, 15 unions, among them the Tramways Union, had walked out —something that had never happened before Not one remit had been considered by the conference and only half of the annual report had been discussed.