MR SEMPLE SPEAKS OUT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 6

MR SEMPLE SPEAKS OUT

“WILL NOT TOLERATE ABUSE. ULTIMATUM TO PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES. “The 'agreement has met with enthusiastic and whole-hearted support all over the Dominion,” commented the Minister of Public Wiorks, H®h. R. Semple, when referring to a resolution of the Motueka branch of the N.Z. Workers’ Union, generally condemning the new public works agreement, and in which the branch expressed complete lack of confidence in the Union’s general secretary for signing “such a document as Mr Semple’s so-called agreement, in view of the fact that the agreement is of no advantage to workers who were responsible for M.i; Semple’s elevation to Ministerial rank.” After pointing out that the final clause of the agreement gives him the right to cancel all or any part of it as it appears to any part of the Dominion, the Minister said he was going to call on the men at Motueka responsible fop the resolution to show why the agreement should not be cancelled so far as they 'are concerned. “I do not wish to force an agreement on anybody, particularly when it is repugnant to them or detrimental to their interests. I have endeavoured to try and improve conditions on public works and it is my intention to continue to do so. Every reasonable thinking person will realise that one cannot do everything in a few months, particularly When it comes to reorganising a national institution, such as the Public Works Department. If the Motueka men therefore want to go back to the old scale they can do so. “There are other resolutions that arq offensive and untruthful and I cannot imagine the state of mind of the individual responsible for drafting it I will give the branch 14 days to show reasons why its members should remiain parties to an agreement which they have condemned and attempted to ridicule, dr whether they will go back on to the old rates operating before the agreement came, into existence. “I am prepared to do all that one man can do to help bona-fide workers in my department earn the maximum that they are physically able to,” concluded tihe Minister, “but I am not going to tolerate unjustifiable abuse by irresponsible individuals who seem to be determined to embarrass and obstruct the Government in its effort to .play the game by the honest men, 4/omen land children of this country.”