A SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1931, Page 6

A SHORT-SIGHTED POLICY.

If the statement made that trade union circles arc holding aloof fi'oni representation upon the Unemployment Board is correct organised labour is pursuing a very shortsighted course of action. Under the Act’the appointment is imide by the Minister from nominations made by labour organisations, and it is this provision to which-trade unions are said to be objecting. They consider the appointment should be made by the unions, and because they cannot have their way are declining to send in nominations for the vacancy caused by lb® retirement of the former trade union representative on the board, Mr. W. Bromley. It is an open secret that his retirement was the outcome of criticism of the method of his appointment, and not of any dissatisfaction with the board’s attitude towards organised labour. It would seem to the dispassionate citizen that the urgency of the unemployment problem should overshadow any pettiness of feeling, and that the trade unions should be the first to render all the aid they can to the authority engaged in seeking a solution. It is evident that some labour officials consider the chief duty of the trade union representative on the board is to light for terms and conditions rather than to co-operate heartily in the endeavour to prevent hardship. The Unemployment Board is not a debating society nor an Arbitra-

lion Court, and it has to deal with circu ms ta lives ilfs they are, not as the members might like them to be. The sooner labour organisations similarly recognise the logic of present-day conditions the sooner, are those conditions likely to improve.