CARPENTERS' SECRETARY FINED IN CHRISTCHURCH

Chronicle (Levin), 9 March 1948, Page 6

CARPENTERS' SECRETARY FINED IN CHRISTCHURCH

Press Assocj,qUon)j,r , vy

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CHRLSTCHURGH,-. March •&' The public gallery- -ofi--, the; Magis'-'" , ;rate's 'Court was -■ iilled vthis. 'morning: ,vhen charges of incit-ing 'members of ;lie branch of the Carpenters' Union to strike were \eard against two union ifficials. Reginald Cecil Day, the president of .he branch of the Carpenters, Joiners' uid . .Machinists' Union, and Frank idoyd Langley, secretary, were charged A-it'h inciting'a certain class of persons. neinbers of the union, to be parties to 1 strike within the nieanings of the Dtrikes and Lockout Emergency Regula:ions, 1939. Each defendapt pleaded :iot guiltv. Mr. F. F. Reid,VS.M.,( was 011 the Bencli, Mr. A. rL\ 'Dohif&lly is' appearing toi1 the Lnspecl or of Awards and Mi. !. A. Gresson for the defend.auts, Mr. Donnelly submitted that Langley in d Day had incited niembers of the union to strike by asking them to at-, tend a stop-work meeting which was''a strike and by ineiting" m'feinbers to take riart in a "uo-slow" strike.

•Langley was iined £20 aiul costs and tlie charge against Day was dismissed. Resolutions calling for ' the withdrawal of the charges against offieial.-> ■ of the Carpenters' Union, a repeal of Ihe regulations under which thev were lodged, and for the Prime Minister to eall for the resignation of the Minister of Lahour (Hon. A. McLagan) were adopted by a stopwork meeting this morning. The attendanee was not faf sliort of 3000 and included a sprinkling of women and men obviouslv not inembers of trades unions. There were about ; a dozon police posted round Latiiper Stiuare wliere the ineeting was held, but the gathering was at all stages orderly and dlspersed quiekly when the' last resolution concerning the resignation of Mr. McLagan had been adopted. "The attendanee of workers at the meeting 111 Latimer Square was hiueh greater tlutn at first imticipated by the Canterbury Trades CoAiicil, ' ' saiil,' the' secretary (Mr. A. B. Grant) this after: uoon.' ' ' I.t is obvious /t-hat if there had been 110 defectiqns from tlie decision of tlie Council that the attendanee— which was easily 3000— would have been nearer 30,000. Many thousands of working-class people' were eonfused over the issue because of the divisidn of loyalties created'!by,opposition to- the ' decision of the, Council by some leading union oflicials. Taiking these factdrs into eonsiderati'oii • the Goverhment shonld now be well aware that the xank and file of the Labonr movement are opposed to the prosecution of union spokesmen ' when these spokesmen are repfesenting -the grievances of . .workers. ' ' "Obviouslv there were eye'r so many thousands m'ore workers who were not eonfused about the issue and according thev . stayed away, " ' said Mr. H. G. Kilpatrick, secretary of the Freezing Workers r Union, commepting on Mr. Grant 's statement fof "the seeretaries_ whose 'unions did- not 'support the" demonstration. "Ctur opiiiion is that in view of the stage' the proceedings had, reached betweejx the government,

the Federation of La'bour and the Carr penters' Union the demonstration was entirely unnecessary. "