EXPELLED FROM UNION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20505, 25 August 1936, Page 12

EXPELLED FROM UNION

WATERSIDERS SEEK REDRESS By Telegraph—Press Association NEW PLYMOUTH, August 24 Conferences with Ministers of the Crown and members of Parliament, a street fight, trouble on ships and meetings of workers and of employers were the subjects included in a long discussion of New Plymouth waterside affairs before Mr Justice Ostler in the Supreme Court. The occasion was the hearing of three actions for damages against the Waterside Workers’ Industrial Union for the wrongful suspension and later the expulsion of James McKay, John Evans and Thomas Gordon Graham. Each of them asked for an injunction and a declaration from the Union that they were still members, and each claimed £l5O damages for wrongful expulsion. The trouble rose to the surface after the labour dispute on the Karu on May 21 and 23. On the day intervening the three plaintiffs were involved in a street encounter with two members of the Union. On the following Monday the plaintiffs were suspended pending police action concerning the affray, and at a later meeting they were expelled. It is alleged that the employers of waterfront labour instigated the latter action. In the present proceedings the Union admits that the suspension and expulsion were illegal because the rules do not confer such power on any grounds, and that plaintiffs are therefore entialed to the injunction and declaration asked for. It was submitted, however, that as far as the Union is concerned the men are entitled to only £1 damages each, this having been paid into Court. The Union contends that the men have been unable to obtain work because of action by the employers. The Court sat till a late hour tonight, but the case was not finished.