Trades Unionism.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 343, 21 December 1897, Page 4

Trades Unionism.

London, December IG. In the action Allen v. Flood,- the House of Lords allowed the appeal with costs. This was a case in which two workmen, Flood and Taylor, recovered damages from Allen, the London delegate of ..the Boiler-makers’ Union. Some dispute arose between the shipwrights and boilermakers as to the limits of their respective work. Both Flood and Taylor, as shipwrights, were discovered to have ironwork in another yard. Allen informed the manager of the Glengall Iron Company, that if the two men were not discharged the other men would strike. The men w T ere discharged, and they took action against Allen. The jury awarded a verdict for the plaintiffs, which the Court of Appeal subsequently confirmed. In delivering the present judgment, Lords Halsbury, Ashbourne, and Morris upheld the Court of Appeal, but Lords Herschell, Watson, Macnaghten, Shaud, Davey and James of Hereford reversed the decision of the Court below.

Lord Herschell held-that the act of Allen was prima facie a lawful one, and not unlawful or actionable on account of the motives dictating it. Lord Macnaghten said the decision did not impair the law relating to oppressive combination and boycotting. The Standard remarks that the decision has struck a severe blow at the workman’s individual liberty of action, and is the most important to trades unionism ever wrested from a legal tribunal.