FEDERATING UNSKILLED LABOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9024, 3 September 1907, Page 4

FEDERATING UNSKILLED LABOUR.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARBITRATION AMENDMENT. A movement has been for some time on foot to bring about a federation of the unions of general labourers in the colony, and so far it has progressed very well. Those wlij have been chiefly interested have been the leaders of the workers in the building trades, waterside labourers and farm hands. Mr J. Thorn told a '[ Lyttelton Times" reh porter last evening that the Canterbury Farm Labourers' Union had received a letter from the secretary of the Dunedin General Labourers' Union, asking for an opinion on the advisableneog of a federation throughout the colony. Twenty-five branches of the Union had been consulted, and only one of those that had replied had pronounced against the proposal. The idea of the federation, he explained, was that labourers were a more or less migratory claes, whose employment was not constant, and did not tend to keep them in one place. The federation would obviate the necessity of paying entry fees for enrolment in the unions of the various towns worked in, besides facilitating the administration of the unions' business < A Union officer recently suggested that the proposal of the Arbitration Bill to restrict officerships in unions to those who were engaged in the trades covered by the unions might prevent amalgamation. Questioned on the point, Mr Thorn said that he considered that the amendment was a scandalous thirg, such as he had never expected from the Bon J. A. Millar. At present half the unions were officered by men following other trades than those concerned, tor the men chosen were select- i ed for their ability. He himself was (secretary for four unions. He was perj fectly satisfied that had that clause been iu operation before, the Farm Labourers' Union would never have existed. Yet it was now very strong, and was increasing every week by fifty members. When they first discussed the question of union, the .labourers saw difficulty in organising at once, unless they employed men outside their own ranks. They went, therefore, to the Trades and Labour Council, which had the organisation, the money and the men with me necessary knowledge of procedure. Had it not been for the help they received from outside, the labourer- would never have been organised at all. Small bodies of workers went to the Council for advice, and having got it, asked the men who had helped them to stay with them as their officers. There was no doubt that if that clause came into force it would place many difficulties in the way of the prpgress of trades unionism, and would mean the smashing up of many of the smaller unions.