LABOUR MERGER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18897, 12 January 1927, Page 11

LABOUR MERGER.

TRADES COUNCILS AND ALLIANCE.

It is proposed that a merging of the Labour organisations in New Zealand should come into forte on January 18tb. The date, however, is not actually fixed, as some of the- organisations concerned have hot.signified their agreement. Tbc bodies ,affected arc the Xew Zealand Alliance of Labour and the Trades and Labour Councils, some members of the Trade Councils feci that tho time is not yet ripe for merging, while others are awaiting definite instructions from members of affiliated unions.

The Alliance of Labour called a.meeting in ApriJ, lftiu,' and that meeting marked the beginning of the sxheme. : The main element in the movement is. that the Trades Councils,, although probably retaining their present title. should become district executives of the Alliance of Labour, whose, executive will be the main body for administering national policy questions. In June last an agreement, was reached between representatives of the Alliance of Labour, and of the Trades Councils Federation-. This was Hlowed ! >y special meetings of unions which were held at Christchurch, Auckland,- Wellington, and Dunediii.

The'majority of the delegates on the Canterbury-Trades and Labour Council have endorsed the fusion proposed, but the delegates to the Canterbury General Labourers' Union oppose it. * ; The position constitutionally is said to be that the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council has not the power, without amending • its rules, to merge its existence in the Alliance ofLabour* .'