AUCKLAND LABOUR TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1380, 5 March 1912, Page 5

AUCKLAND LABOUR TROUBLE.

MEETING OF THE UNION. "IF THE GLOVES ARE TAKEN OFF." A RUMOUR AND A CONTRADICTION. (By Telegraph.—FreM ABSoalatton.l Auckland, March 4. A meeting of the General Labourers' Union, to consider the refusal of local bodies and employers to' confer with the executive, was held in the Opera House yesterday. The building was crowded. Mr. P. Fraser, president of the Labourers' Union, presided. He said that tho employers had made up their minds deliberately to reject all overtures. He declared that tho labourers in Auckland were ■ tho. worst paid in Now Zealand. Tho City Council was to offer its men ah increase of Bd. a day, on condition that they withdrew from tho union. Thus tho local bodies were trying to buy the bodies and souls of the men for Bd. a day. Mr. Parry ridiculed tho refusal of the Mayor to debate tho position. To Hades, he "said, with the dignity of the Mayor. In a trouble of this kind they had a right to a fair hearing, but this was refused. He challenged the Mayor to say he know_ nothing of tho report that an organiser had been through tho King Country, and had secured promises of 300 farmers to come to Auckland in the event p'f trouble. , Mr. Webb, president of tho Federation of Labour, said a strike was the last resort, but if tho glovos wero taken off no mercy would be shown or asked. The following motion was unanimously adopted:—"That this mooting of citizens of Auckland protest against tho coercive tactics of the City Council and other public bodies of Auckland in refusing to discuss working conditions with the General Labourers' Union, and condemns the action of tho Mayor and council in allying themselves with the employing class against organised labour, and calls upon them to place tho public interests paramount, and help to avoid industrial trouble."