ARBITRATION 0R STRIKE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2242, 14 July 1908, Page 2

ARBITRATION 0R STRIKE.

REPORT OF TRADES AND LABOR COUNCIL. THE NEW ARBITRATION AMENDMENTS. [Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, July 13. The annual meeting of the Trades and Labor Council was held on Saturday. The attendance of delegates constituted a record, there being about 100 present. The annual report stated that during tho year 10 unions had affiliated to tho Council, making tho total 56. Tlie balance to credit was £B4 9s 3d, compared with the previous year’s credit balance of £ls. 15s. Regarding such cases as the farm laborers’ dispute, tho Executive was of opinion that a limit should be put upon the time to be occupied in the hearing. With reference to tho proposed amendments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the report stated that they had caused considerable dissent among unions' throughout tho Dominion. The Canterbury Council had issued a manifesto disapproving of the proposed industrial councils, approving of the suggestion to make agreements binding as awards, approving of clause 22, disagreeing with the clause regarding liability of members, also the payment of fines from wages and the ouestion of all workers contributing to unions, approving of clauses 40, 41, 42 and 43, subsection 1 C 48, disagreeing with clauses relative to officers of unions and the prevention of registration of unions under the Trade Union Act. It was tho Council’s opinion that the Conciliation Board should be. given the power proposed to be given industrial councils, in which case the delays that have caused so much annoyance to unions would to a great extent be done away with. One reason why the Conciliation Boards had not done all that was expected of them was the contempt with which the employers treated the whole subject. They merely sat tight and compelled the union to put the machinery in motion instead of accepting the Act an the spirit in which it was framed. They had all along adopted the air of contumacious defendants, -until the result that the unions had to ignore the Boards and resort to arbitration. The blame lav on the employers for not trying to conciliate on the matters in dispute, arid tho result was a-uesire on the part of some unions to resort to the old method, viz., “strike.” As unionists they must do all in their power to prevent this retrograde step being taken. The Act. with all its imperfections, was preferable to the barbarous old method of “strike.” They should loyally adhere to the law as they were compelled to find it. Tile report was adopted.