TO CHECK WRECKERS

Chronicle (Levin), 4 September 1947, Page 6

TO CHECK WRECKERS

Prese Association J t

Mr. Semple s Explanation Of Strike Ballot Issue

(Per

WELLINGTON, Sept. 3. The original Iudustrial Coneiliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill had some chance Of being effective but. the Minister of Labour had removed from it the only means by which its predorninaut objective— that no strike shouid take place without an effeetual seeret ballot — could be acliieved, said Mr. T. C. Webb (Rodney) when the discussion of the Bill was continued in the House of Representatives tonight. .Mr. Webb said it would come as a shock to the public that the secret ballot was nqt compulsory under the amended Bill as that provision had been emasculated. All the Bill-now said was that it.was to be a rule of a union that a secret ballot has to be taken before a strike. It was natural to ask what was to happen if a ballot were not taken. The answer was nothing because the penalties in the original Bill had been removed. ' What' sort of ballot could the registrar of iudustrial unions hold after a strike had taken place? If the men ignored their own rules and struck without a' ballot, what chance had the registrar of taking a ballot worthy of the name? The Minister had said that under the existing law strikes were illegal. That provision had been in the law for the last 40 years and the Bill would make that provision more of a dead letter than ever, if that were possible. Mr. R. M. Macfarlane (Christchurch Central) said ever since the end of hostilities New Zealand, like other countries, had had the experience of industrial disturbances. It was the aftermath of war. Many workers believed that after the war there was to be a new world and they were unsettled. It also had to be admitted that there were people who were wreckers operative in this countrv and elsewhere. Opposition voiee: Who are they? Mr. IMacfarlane said the Opposition knew who he was referring to. Mr. Mackley: But they have aligned theuiselves with this Government. Mr. Macfarlane said thev were earrving out a potiey of underminiug respect for Governments and believed in transforming society not 'by deinoeracy Uui by continuous turmoil. Mr. Doidge: Are you referring to Communists? Mr. Macfarlane: I am. Opposition member: Was no.t the Minister one at one time? Mr. Macfarlane said the nced for the Bill had been brought about by the activities of these people. The BiL aimed at putting the control of industrial affairs in the hands of the rank and file of the trade union movement ii they cared to exercise it. Mr. K. ,T. Holvoake (Pahiatua) said the familiar pattern of the Government 's liandling of industrial troubies was for the Government to start by taking a very strong billigerent attitude. Then came threats by the militants — whether thev were Communists r6r ti'dt he did fnb'f'! krfbW— hiid" Tlre (Absvi ernment weakened. Then followed more threats followed by a very abject surrendel' by the Government. The Government had sliown itself incapable of liandling industrial problems which were the biggest problems

faeing it today. The stoppages wfiicii occurred were written into the cost ot goods and so into the cost of living. It was the people who paid all the way. Mr. Holvoake dealt at length with the handling of the Waikato coal strike in 1942 and held that the Government had capitulated then. Mr. McLagan, who had been hailed as a iiew colossus striding across the industrial battlefield, had not distinguished himself theu ot since by the success of his polieies. This Bill had been produced by the Minister of Labour as his atomic bomb in the industrial warfare but forces outside the House had been brought to , bear on him with the result that he had begn compelled to remove the atomic charge, reducing the Bill to a damp squib. , The vital clause, as rewritten, had j lost all meaning and he thouglit no ! Government member was entirely happv ! about it/ The Bill now was no more tTian a piece of political windowdressing designed to save tlie Government 's face. It would be more correctly known as the Industrial Capitulation and Abdication Bill. Hon. R. Semple said it was untrue to say the Bill had been altered as the result of pressure froiu outside the House. Tlie aniendments which had beeu made came from Government caucus. f?I have been a Minister in this House for twelve years and no industrial gangster has ever foreed rae into doing anything against my judgment," said Mr. Semple. There was in New Zealand, as in Other countries, the tvpe of individual who thought only of wrcclcing a nation by all possible means. Such persons entertained the crazv idea that out of the wrecltage oi existing order they could develop a dictatorship of the proletariat but we J wanted no dictatorsliips, whether from | above or from below, for they. meant the end of democracy aud the beginning of tyranny. No strikes were warranted in New Zealand under present conditions and the Bill offered tho people a safety valve against strikes. The Minister said he personally would go further than the Bill and give the wives of workers the right to vote on whether their breadline shouid be broken by strikes. Wives and mothers suffered most from strikes and they had as much right to determine whether a strike shouid be held as had a handful of demogogues. Mr. Doidge:. Wouldn't it be a simple matter to make it impossible for Communists to hold office in the unions? Mr. Semple said such a eourse had not been considered. Mr. Semple said tlie Bill was introduced to take powers out of theJiands of the wreckers and put it in the hand?, of the rank and file so that thev and not the gangsters would be masters ot the situation.