DICTATORSHIP!

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20242, 19 February 1938, Page 3

DICTATORSHIP!

BY TRADES UNIONS? COMPLAINT BY BUILDERS. THE APPRENTICESHIP PLAN. (.By Teiegrapn.— tmsa Association j PA-L.iU.bi\S l UiS IN., i'eU. id.

"it is a poor lookout tor us when a Minister auows a scheme to go aheau in one place and yet not in another

uecause some union secretary cries it d«wn."

This remark, and others like it, which suggested that the Government was being dictated to by trade unions, were voiced at to-day's annual conference of the New Zealand Builders' Federation during a discussion on the failure of the subsidised traineeapprentice scheme inititated by . the acting-Minister for Labour, Mr. P, C Webb, last year. The conference was informed that in reply to an intimation that the Carpenters' and Joiners' Union, Auckland, was definitely hostile to the scheme, the Minister had stated that he saw little to be gained in endeavouring to force the trainee system in areas where that method was not favoured. The scheme provided for a subsidy on the wages of apprentices, and It was stated that at a conference of workers' and employers' representatives i.t.'liad been approved. The following remit was carried: — "That the conference expresses to the Minister for Labour its regret that he does not intend to make it mandatory for apprenticeship committees to ratify contracts of apprenticeship under the trainee system where such contracts comply with other necessary conditions."