FURNITURE TRADE DISPUTE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1110, 25 April 1911, Page 3

FURNITURE TRADE DISPUTE.

Sir,—"By your editorial comment to my letter, appearing in your issue of April 15,. you have shown yourself in your true colours. Your idea of conciliation is, to say the least of it, amusing. In tho first place, you hold (hat the employers and employees are .the best, assessors, but then you add a proviso which is in .truo; keeping with your attitude towards the -'workers 'right through:tho- chapter. The proviso in the case under review is as fol|ows.:—'.'Tho of tho employers to .have' the' assistance of. : someone experienced 1 in 'such negotiations, presumably to balance the experience of so .skilled a campaigner as Hr. Jloriarty himself is said to be, does not seem unreasonable to us." Undoubtedly a great idea of conciliation. So long as tho workers' representatives are inferior to those of the employers, then vou hold a conference from both is tho best method of. settling a dispute, at least, that is the only inference to bo drawn from the above proviso. Should it even bo suggested, or told to you, that the workers have a "skilled campaigner" on their side, then it seems only reasonable to you to allow the employers the right to call in 'a "specially trained man" (vide tlie circulars issued by tho Employers' Association) to assist them. Would.it seem reasonable to you to grant this right to the. workers?. Yes, then why did you not condemn the action of this Mr. Grenfell, in having the secretary of the Tin Workers' Union removed from the position of assessor on tha Conciliation Council, just because he had never worked at the trade? What's sauco for the goose should be sauce for tho gander.

Now, sir, as regards the statement that I: am said to bo a "flailed campaigner." Well, that sort of piffle may go down with others, but not with mo. Take my advice, and.. roseTvc all your "soft soap," as you Will need|)t all this ("election") year. Surely there is no skill required to us!: for our just rights? I may state that before asking tiro employers to meet us in conference, we supplied each nnd every one of them with a.printed copy o£ our demands. Further, we supplied the secretary of tho Employers' Association with a list of all the employer's 'we were citing, and further, a meeting of these employers was held to consider tho demands. We then appointed our delegates, and. Rave them a free haw), to meet and settle the dispute with the employers, but, through the insistence of the employers, that ono of their assessors should he an outsider, with whom we know it to be a matter of impossibility to .come to a settlement, we are forced to fight for our rights. . Yet your paper approves of the employers' action in doing "so. As your paper is the mouthpiece of the Opposition party, you have given us a good idea of the Labour legislation that would be passed if that party ever succeeded in getting into power. According to one of that party, the present labour legislation is "tyrannical." In order to give myself a chance to try and find a word to describe the legislation to be introduced , by the Opposition, I will ring off now, and turn up ancient history.—l am, etc.,

DAN. MORIARTY, Secretary Wellington Furniture Union. April 18, 1911.

[Mr.. Moriarty draws on his imagination when he suggests that we have any desire to see the workers' representatives placed at a disadvantage. We have grown accustomed to this sort of thins, however, and leave our comment to speak for itself. Mr. Jloriarty's announcement that ho is about to devote his time to the study of ancient history leads us to hope that we will be spared any further encroachment on our space, for the present at least, by his vigorously-written, if somewhat intemperate and imaginative effusions.]