ONE BIG UNION

Otago Witness, Issue 3475, 19 October 1920, Page 20

ONE BIG UNION

ADDRESS BY MR GRAYNDLER

On Sunday, under tho auspices of the iLabour Representation Council, Mr O. Grayridlor, secretary of the General [Labourers' Union, addresed a meeting on "The One Big Union." The speaker explained the growth of the New Zealand Workers' Union, which iendeavoureci to enrol the workers under one constitution, along the lines of the Australian Workers' (Union, to satisfy present needs. The 1913 strike taught them the menace of unorganised rural labour, the organisation of ■which should be the work of organised ILabour generally. He contrasted the Broken Hill strike, which was not defeated fry rural workers, because tho work of the 'Australian Workers' Union made that impossible. The New Zealand Workers' Union was out for the same purpose. It already organised shearers., musterers,

drovers, thrashing workers, flax workers, timber workers, public construction workers, and many other callings into one big union. It alone could put 20 or 30 organisers into the field, and had organised the public construction workers all over New Zealand, and secured for them the good conditions and the improved wages. This was achieved within three months. It was extending its field of operations to the city, because there were unorganised occupations calling out to be organised. The New Zealand Workers' Union was the only movement that understood its responsibility to the unorganised workers, and extended its protecting hand. He condemned the "dog-in-the-manger" policy of unions that would not organise the unorganised workers and left it to individuals. He traced recent successes m organising new unions and securing amalgamation of old ones. He also condemned the inefficiency and cost of sectional unions, and explained that the saving of secretarial salaries and officers' ex-

pensea would provide a fund to do organising - work and establish Labour journals. To the advocates of industrial unionism who talked of the impracticability of ' one union he referred to the Australian Workers' Union, which secured awards or agreements for 73 different classes of work. The one union ticket, instead of 73 tickets, he contrasted with the burden of belonging to sectional unions. It was only the strength of the A.W.U. that removed the yellow peril from Australia, and the one big union could remove that menace here. He appealed to the General Labourers' Union to amalgamate and to co-operate in the work of organising all general labourers in Dunedm and Otago. In reply to Mr Glover, of the Alliance of Labour, Mr Grayndler said they waited for 30 years while men talked of organising along the lines of industry, but they refused to mark time any longei\ They were out to organise the unorganised workers, no matter what their occupation was. In

reply to Mr Cope, he made it clear that the objects of the one big union were to adapt itself to existing conditions, meet present needs, and # organise humanity, ■whether tho unorganised occupation consisted of one man or 1000 men, whether it was an industry or a section of an industry.