Stopwork Meetings May Mean Prosecutions

Chronicle (Levin), 28 January 1949, Page 4

Stopwork Meetings May Mean Prosecutions

Press Association)

(Per

# WELLINGTON, Jan. -27, An appeal to, dt-ivers' umons not to neetllessly ineonvenionce the. wkole; eoinmunity by. liol-ding the , stppwerlv ; meetings proposed for tomorrow, w,a^ , lhade by the MiniSter of Labonr4 hlr | llcLagan, tonight. If the meetings were held, - he said, the department 1 wonid make investigations with a view to instituting legal proceedings against: fchose resppnsible. ,He hoped that iii view of the advantages to be derived crom adhering to the - eoneiliation - metljod which the drivers • themselves had invoked, legal proceedings would1 not become necessary. The Minister said he had suggested to the Drivers' Federation that' the meetings be ealled off and that the tlrivers ' represeht atives meet him tc diseuss any difficulties they.might have, eneountered in the eourse of their eoneiliation proceedings. He would be happy to meet employers' and employees' representatives together or separ_ately as desired, to diseuss and en deavou-r to remove -any diffienlties .that had arisen and to get proceedings for ■the new award baek on a proper footing. He was confident thismethoci would be more eft'eetive in settling the dispute than any number of stopwork meetings. That had generally been tlu case in^ tlie .past. The Otago Drivers Union was not holding / a stopwork meeting and he felt members- of hl! otlier drivers- unions might well follow this sensible example. The unions and employers' organisations had starteci eoneiliation proeeedfngs for a new award and thus pledg-ed themselves t(> observe and abid-e by tlie eoneiliation and arbitration proeedure. In these eircumstanees the holding of stopwo.^ meetings was a breach of the industria 1 laAV and the Drivers' Federation had been advised of the legal position.