TRADE UNIONISM

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXX, Issue 9638, 23 June 1941, Page 3

TRADE UNIONISM

ADDRESS 8V MEMBER FOB THEMES GROWTH Of' MOVEMENT LABOUR GOVERNMENT’S HELP Trades unionism and its growth, with particular reference to the progress of the movement in New Zealand, was the subject of an address

by Mr James Thorn,,M.P. for Thames, to Waihi and district unionists in the

Miners’ Hall last Thursday evening. Mr IT. L. Boughton presided over a good attendance.

3 Mr Thorn first described the con- ' dilions in which trades unionism whs . born wlien the industrial revolution, or the invention of machinery, har- , ncssed to steam power, resulted in the factory system of production 150 years ago in Great Britain. The terrible conditions affecting child labour and the workers generally then taught them the need and value of . unity, and the birth of trade unionism had resulted. START MADE IN ’SEVENTIES Mr Thorn stated that it was to escape the dreadful poverty and tyr anuieal Government that, existed in. Britain before IS4O that many people emigrated. Indeed, men like Edward Gibbon Wakefield regarded emigration as one of the remedies for the evils which marked the beginnings of the present industrial system. Trade unionism appeared in New Zealand in the 18 70’s, said Mr Thorn, and the first Trades and Labour Council’s conference ever held in the Dominion was held in Dunedin in 1885. Among its decisions, this conference passed a motion affirming that the workers should take political action through a party of their own. The event, the outcome of which provided the basis on which the New Zealand Trade Union movement a? it is known to-day was built, was the great Maritime Strike in 1890. This strike in New Zealand was called in sympathy with Australian seamen's organisations. It was defeated, but at the general elections immediately after the Conservative Government was defeated, and in 1894 the Sc till on Government —then called the “Seven Devils of Socialism'' ly its opponents—passed the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act it v as this Act that gave shap - to the Now Zealand Trades Union move- ( meat. BENEFICIAL LEGISLATION

Coining to the period before the 1935 General Elections, Mr Thorn recalled that the principle of compulsory arbitration in this famous piece of legislation was reverse! by the Coalition Government led by Mr Forbes and Mr Coates, wages were reduced, the indentures of apprentices wefe cancelled, and the unemployment of upwards of 60,000 workers liad weakened and demoralised the trade unions. Widespread poverty was rampant and married men with families by the thousand were working for miserable wages of 25s and 30s a week. Mr Thorn gave three instances showing how trade unionists had benefited by tile legislation of the present Labour Government. By its comprehensive amendment of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the Government had instituted the 40-liour week, and of the 250,000 members of the trades unions, 186,000, or 74 per cent, of the total, were enjoying this great boon. Since 1935, the members ,of the trades unions had grown from 89,000 to 250;000. Wages cuts had been restored and wages had been increased, so that last year the sum paid in wages and salaries to the workers was £50,000,000 more than it was in 1935. Mr Thorn briefly enumerated the improvements that bad also been made in the Workers’ Compensation for Accidents Act, which, in 1936, ‘among other things, was altered to cover for the first time sharemilkers and domestic servants.

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

Mr Thorn, dealing with the Social Security Act, said that, with the exception of the general medical practitioner benefit, every benefit in the Act was now being administered at a cost greatly in excess'of the taxation paid into the Social , Security Fund. The medical practitioner benefit had been only partly applied, but it was available already to thousands of people, and its administration was certain to be extended. Referring to the clamour by the Nationalist Party for a National Government, Mr Thorn said this was always accompanied by descriptions of tlio Labour Party as Nazis and by condemnations of the 40-hour week. It was clear that the real object of this agitation was to torpedo the Labour Government’s beneficial legislation from within. The cry for a National Government by Tories was only a political trick to serve reactionary interests.

Mr Thorn concluded by appealing for a stronger and more knowledgeable trades union movement, and for spirited action to strengthen the Labour Party and the present Government. Only unity, he said, had served the workers in the past, and it was now more than ever necessary in view of the critical period that faced the British people and the world. After Mr Thorn had answered seve-

ral questions, a vote of thanks for his address was carried by acclamation.