COTTON INDUSTRY LOCK-OUT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 9

COTTON INDUSTRY LOCK-OUT

EMPLOYERS TAKE DRASTIC ACTION

HALF A MILLION WORKERS AFFECTED

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 11.3 a.m. LONDON, Friday. .AS a sequel to the workers at Ramsey Mill, Oldham, .»» striking’ because a fellow employee refused to join the union, the Master Cotton-Spinners’ Federation declared a lockout from August 11, affecting 200,000 cotton-spinners and 300,000 workers in other industries.

The workers’ strike arose over a dispute between. an operative named Goodman Ackley and the trade union. Ackley had not paid his subscription to the union for 10 months, and his colleagues decided no longer to work with him. The employers protested that it was no concern of theirs, and refused to discharge Ackley, whereupon a strike was called. The federation’s statement is that

Ackley offered to pay up his arrears, but the union insisted that he should rejoin as a new member. This would cancel the accrued benefits to which he is entitled as a result of ov I: 20 years’ membership. It adds: ‘'This dislocation of the firm’s business as a means of determining a private dispute between the works people and the union is an unwarrantable menace which cannot be tolerated.”