COMPULSORY UNIONISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 13128, 9 November 1906, Page 5

COMPULSORY UNIONISM.

EFFECT OF A STRIKE IN WALES. United Press AssociationHPer Electric Telegraph—Copyright. , LONDON, November 7. Owing to the Non-Unionists joining the Miners' Federation, 5000 Welsh strikers have resumed "work, and others are following their example The London correspondent of the "Argus" writing on September 7th, said : Many months ago the ■.,. members of the Miners' Federation in South Wales determined that they would;.no longer work with non-Unioiuste. : The complaint has been that non-members reaped all the benefits of,the work of the federation and yet contributed nothing to its funds. The employers have taken no part in the dispute beyond suggesting that they would be willing to arrange that specified collieries should be set aside for non-Unionists if the federationist officials could not secure fair treatment, for colliers who had not joined their ranks.; Now, However, the struggle has commenced in earnest. Eleven thousand miners have ceased work, and at least 10,000 others handed in notice that they would do. so in a month's time. But the strikers, hate not, been, content Swith the indirect pressure upon vi^e'colliery proprietors.; Throughout the week tievßhymriey and districts of 'the South Wales ' coal-field ' > haw been the scenes of exciting scenes, 'arranged with a view to overawing the recalcitrant. nonunionists. Long processions of miners have ;marched through the various towns. Any non-Unionist who daredr to show his face, met with scant ceremony. But the reception of non-Unionists at the hands of trade Unionists was kindly compared with that meted out by the wives of the strikers. At Maesteg two unfortunates were dragged through the town by a shrieking mob of women, and all but stripped to the skin before a tardy promise to join the federation was extracted. In several other cases' the victims were trundled on wheelbarrows to the federation office. Another non-Unionist was* "frogmarched" to the place where the Union official was waiting to receive subscriptions. It is not wonderful that very few non-Unionists remained after the first few hours, none after the first few days. The South Wales colliery strike will be known in history as the "Four Days' Strike." In the absence of'" any protection from the law, and lacking any assistance from their masters, the non-Unionists were in a hopeless position throughout.