LABOUR COUNCIL’S PROTEST

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 16, 4 October 1929, Page 6

LABOUR COUNCIL’S PROTEST

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS URGED DUNEDIN, Oc. 4. At the monthly meeting of the Otago Labour Council, held this evening, considerable criticism was levelled at the Arbitration Court’s pronouncement, wdien it was stated that the Court had repudiated the basis which it had formerly adopted, namely that a family for tl i purpose of wages and taxation meant a man, his wife, and two chil dron. After a lengthy discussion, the following resolutions were passed: “That this Council views with grave concern the ease w‘th which the Court of Arbitration, in order to further the interests of ernployerdom, as opposed to .those of the workers, has repudiated the foundation of the basic wage fixation on Which it has worked for many years. The Court has thus shown itself to be partial; inconsistent, and arbitrary, and we strongly recommend the National Counsel of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour lb request" the Government to require the Court 1 of Arbi tr.ation- to state clearly upon wdiat principles or basis it has created the present inadequate basic wage, and “that itr view of the recent pronouncement of the Court of. Arbitration on the basic wage, this Council is of the opinion that" the time is ripe for the workers to realise that the only basis oh which their Wages and conditions can bo improved and maintained is by organising along more definite industrial'union and class lines; and that all unions be called upon to urge the do velopment of the class consciousness ot the, whole working class, with a view to' winning bettor conditions on the basis of their economic strength.”