LABOR STONEWALL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15366, 10 November 1920, Page 8

LABOR STONEWALL.

OPPOSITION TO GUILDS. AOTI-BOPfU^ 1 LEGISL ATION tfVoni Otir^Mlia^eSJrf&y «eporter^4 ... WBEKINGGCON, this day. Members of the>-^mi'Bei!iofi>iße'p'rcsenti£I t tives have been . accused- of feafctiness in their anxiety to swallow; the ijGavernment's programme and return cto their homes, bdt.the last, two days their, mood has t»mpletely reversed.. Tho official Labor party commenced on Monday night ;to stonewall the .Industrial -. Conciliation Amendment Act/,, on account: of clsiuse-'-3, which gives persons and societies other, thax^ industrial unions or associations of. employers the right to > appelarcJ before. Conciliation Council or the .'Arbitration^ Courts and Clause 4, .enabling' unions' t* be formed in ., au mdustry whei-e;;a. tfiegistered union: ia already in existence* r'As the Minister, of Labor promised to drop clause 4 only I one bone ,of remained, and iin a spirit 6£ concession Sir Wm. Herriespromised to limit this clause to. associa-" tions, not individuals*. This reduced ; tho ; issue to recognition of trade or professional guilds. A sitting lasting all night j ended at daylight yesterday with the. Bill. 1 in committee stage, and .;as soon as; Mr Holland gob his opportunity yesterday , afternoon he moved to report progress. 1 Reformers and Liberals ' sat : listening to -. half jL dozen. Laborites, who maintained a frank stonewall for 'three hours on ithis * motion of limited scope. ;. The... chairmari of "committees at, 4 o'clock .commenced :to:_ apply the tedious repetition rule, . Mrj Howard extracting some humor of bitter i quality out of it by prefacing each of his! four speeches with the announcement, 1 "I i have found a' new. point," bnt the new! points under official scrutiny proved ..tobe old or irrelevant." These are exceed- j ingly funny rufhigs,;J f lie complained, -"and! when we%et?into power we will change! them . They-- were * bf < Liberals' ! to beat "ithe Reform Goppositi£h. f'Now the Reformers find themUsefuh'' (Laughter.) A division on the fiiotiotuto report progress resulted in'Mt Holland^* defeat by 43 votes to 18., '- * % : ~ ':- r \' i 'V^- '■• . : - ! ■••; 'j Then ,the stonewall was^sijm'ed.-'.Tho' Nmderlying object ■appearedf t« be*not''oSrty to stop tho objectionable olau&es' in' the Bill itself, but seyeiral'Tiew clauses, * fho' 1 -' exact teVms of which "were unknown, ; but , they were strongly suspected of - embodying some means of meefchfg *t : fac< employers' grievance ovW'&e'Ceht^agfe'.Twhus while the prices f>fvs^ap]£~ products are- -falling. THE feREA^TfiMD ¥aE*TY. Sir Wm. Herries, *Mihsiter of Labor, broke the .; silenc^o/j.^Jito Government benches soon afjt^pjiil pim? ■• J'Things. -cannot go on as they ar.e,^!^.e 'rgtnarked, "and I shall recominend^oVmy,^colleagues that the 'Crown 1 shall beYeY>re&ent&l in'conciliation proceedings v the f^epice^n.cat'ive 1 " J br tho public." -.-;•'->■■ Mr Howard:' What about tho Conciliator? Does he not' represent the Crown ? 1 Sir Wm. Herries; No, he is an aVbitralov. Mr Savage (ironically) : Who ,, is the public? ■'"..,' ' . ''. Stfr Wm. Herrifes: We are all the public. He went on to say that, the more! people who came before the Arbitration Court tho better the chance of getting an award which would, please all sides. As it was tho public was simply a, shuttle-' cock between two disputing parties who took no notice of tho public, * He regretted very much having promised to drop clause 4, but clause 3 .was. essential. Mr Lysnar: Don't give way any more. Mr Holland: The Minister has given us an invitation to stonewall for six hours. Sir Wm. Herries: I don't mind -36 hours, t want to see what metal you are 'made of-' . . .'■'. '.■',.. : ... ■■■■ And the stonewall went. on.

WEiL't^GlfdN^ljSast' night. The discussion on -Mr Solland's amendment to report progress -on the Industrial, Conciliation and '• Arbitration, Bill was continued' throughput^ the afternoon, and the Labor members 'maintained , a consistent desire to report progress, which desire was so/Consistently maintained an (o amount to an obvious "stonewall." At length they were, compelled to allow it go to the/ vote, the amendment being rejected on a division by 43 votes to 18. The debate was then^r«verted. s to the Merits of Clause 2, which provides that the 1 Commissioner shall -. give • not less than | seven diays' notice iA the local newspapers j of the- day and _p.la r ce. of hearing of the nature of the industrial dispute. On this proposal the same "exhaustive" methods, of disojission were resorted to, and were j proceeding at the 5.30 adjournment. '. In the evening the Minister announced tliafc he would agree to strike out clause 2. . , This was agreed to and the, Committee proceeded to discuss the new clause 3, moved by the Minister. *. The new clause reads as follows:— >-"inj any proceeding before the Council or Court relating to any .industry, any organisation of employers or any organisation of workers consisting of not less than fifteen members connected with that industry in , the locality to which ' the pro- ' eeeding relates shall be entitled to appear and be heard in every .rfespect as if they wsre parties to; such proceedings, if in the opinion of the"' Commissioner where stich proceedings is, before the Council j "or of the Court where such proceedings is before the Court, such organisation of employers or workers or members thereof may in any' matter be affected' by ahyi result of such proceedings." The Minister said he could not see any reason why an outsider should- 'not' have representation before the Court; Everyone affected- by a- dispute should b& represented. ; ' ''■'.'" Mr Howard: The Government is represented by the Conciliation Commissioner. The Minister : No ! The Commissioner is an arbitrator. Mr Sullivan: The whole object is to keep down wages. The Minister: No. Tho clause simply allowed any body of employers or employees interested to be represented in the proceedings on a dispute. The clause was essential im tho interests of the vast majority of workers not represented by unions. . . . . :....' Mr Holland said it was significartt that monibers oii the Reform benches were silent on this matter. The amendment of the clause moved by the Minister did nob affect the principle of the measure. ■ The clause contained the germs of serious in» clustrial trouble. „ . ,'.' Mr Veitch said ,it shdtald meet the objections of those opposed to the clause, if a proviso were added requiring the proposed new unions to show that .their interests could not be properly served by the existing organisation in their industry by reason of distance or other considerations of convenience. After the' supper adjournment the discussion, on 'Clause • 3 , wan continued, being 'confined to members of the Labor party and giving every promise of being protracted. '"'',- At 1 p.m. Mr Fraser moved progress on the ground that more important Bills than the one before the House, notably tli" Finance Bill, had to be considered, and clear brains and visions- were. 1 necessary te do them justice. ■ On a division the amendment. was lost by 39 votes to 15 and the discussion was resumed. The discussion was proceeding at 2 a.m., ? with.no immediate sign of either sidt giving way.— Press Assn.