Industrial Agreements

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 24

Industrial Agreements

Surprise was expressed in Trade Union circles in Christchurch on Friday at the fact that the final Conciliation Council proceedings in the dispute affecting workers in the motor construction industry throughout the Dominion had failed The conciliation commissioner will give formal notice to the clerk of awards, and the award will lapse in accordance with the amendments made to the Industrial Conciliatjon and Arbitration Act last session. The reason for the surprise was that it was understood that the employees' assessors were prepared to accept the terms for a new award proposed by the employers at the first conciliation proceedings. The breakdown of the negotiations affecting the motor trade makes tlm second failure to reach a settlement of disputes under the amended legislation (says the Christchurch Times), and some unionists state they are puzzled to know exactly what the employers are aiming at. “ Following on the failure of two disputes out of three that have gone to the Conciliation Council, I suppose disputes will be filed in all directions now,” commented one man. “ When there are no awards it simply means that any firm can step in and employ cheap labour, although that will not be in the best interests of the larger concerns. It appears that wages are being attacked in preference to conditions, although when the proposed amendments to the Arbitration Act were being discussed much stress was made of the restrictions that were hampering industry and the desire to remove them. In any of the employers’ terms that I have seen so far, however, attention has been paid to wages and not to anything in the nature of restrictions.”