WORKERS' UNIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 87, 13 April 1938, Page 6

WORKERS' UNIONS

ORGANISED ON LINES OF

INDUSTRY

EFFECT OF UNIONISM

“A direct effect of the new legislation is the crystallisation of the workers’ organisations on the lines ol separate industries,” said Mr. T. Bishop, secretary of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, when speaking at the annual meeting of the Wanganui Employers’ Association last even-

ing. "It was coming in New Zealand,” he said, “as it has come in the older countries, but it has been brought about more rapidly than it would have been but for the stimulation of the law providing for compulsory unionism.” The position now was that the Sawmillers’ Union sought to cover in one award all workers in the sawmill industry and the gas workers were seeking to do the same in the gas industry. This, naturally, had the effect of driving all the employers in the one industry to organise themselves, so many new organisations, some on a Dominion basis, were being formed. These new organisations in many cases remained with the federation but in some cases the membership of local associations was lost. This form of organisation, he thought, was bound to grow. It was fostered by the trend of all the new legislation, stimulated by the fact that workers were organising on the lines of industry and was made almost unavoidable for industries rationalised under the Industrial Efficiency Act. In Great Britain the industries were organised into strong national federations which were affiliated to the National Confederation of Employers’ Federations. Mr. Bishop said that it would probably be necessary for the New Zealand Employers’ Federation to adapt its organisation to the new demand and take full advantage of it in the I common intr