AWARD SUPERSEDED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11509, 4 October 1915, Page 5

AWARD SUPERSEDED.

_4 SEQUEL T0J913 STRIKF. IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. {Tmi Pukss Association.] GREY MOUTH, October 4. As a .sequel to tho 1913 strike a dispute between tho two watersiders' unions at Creymouth was submitted to the Arbitration Court hero about tho middle of September. Tho plaintiff union was registered under tho Arbitration Act in 1899 and iu 1913 was working under a Court award, tho term of which expired at the end of January, 1914. Three months prior to tho expiry the union struck in common with other waterside unions in tho Dominion and continued the strike till December 16, 1913, when tho men resolved to resume work, notice of such desire being served on the shipping companies. Meanwhile another union was formed, its registration being accepted by the registrar on December 18, notwithstanding tho fact that tho old union protested by wire before the date of registra A»n. Tho new union continued to work under practically the same conditions as the old union until February 3, 1914, when an industrial agreement between the now union and tho shipping companies was made, throe days after the expiry date of the okl award. Tho questions for the Court were:— (a) The plaintiff union, having struck, is their award of March, 1913, still i valid and binding on the parties? (b) ! Has a breach of the award been com- ! mittcd by the defendants and the shipping companies? The Court held that when the members of the old union went out on strike they destroyed the fundamental basis of til© award, having repudiated their obligations and surrendered the rights and privileges provided in the award by striking. The old union not only committed a breach of the Act-, for" which penalties are provided, individually as well as collectively, but; it compelled the employers to find. ' other workers and entitled them to outer into an industrial agreement with, the new. union, which was lawfully registered and prepared to do tho work. In regard to plaint'fPs claims that its members were prepared to do the work before the new union was actually registered, and also that its award "then again beasme operative, the Court drew a simile, remarking that the Germans regard an international treaty as Ending only when it suited their own' purposes. If such a j view of an award were upheld it would bo absolutely destructive to industrial morality and good faun. Tho Court found nothing in the Act to justify the convention #that the claims wero within the- union's legal rights, pointing out that tho' peualty clauses for striking did not appear to deal with the relative rights of parties when a strike occurs, but merely_ pro- j scribed the penalties. Tho plaintiff union, having deliberately repudiated the award and by strik'ng violated the essential object of the Act, had forfeited all riu;ht to revoke to the award j for the benefit of its members. The j Court was Further of opinion that iio- j der sub-section 1 of section 90 the industrial agreement with tho new union on February 3 superceded and put an end to the old union's a,ward in March, 1913.