MUNICIPAL WORKERS' UNION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 6

MUNICIPAL WORKERS' UNION

REGISTRAR RIGHT IN REFUSING REGISTRATION

HIS RULING UPHELD BY THE COURT Tho Court of Arbitration Ims decided to instruct tho Registrar of Industrial Umous that his refusal to register the Wellington Municipal Employees' Union under tho Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act should be insisted upon. Ihc union recently appealed to Miu Court against the Registrar's refusal of registration. In a judgment iiled yesterday with the Deputy Registrar of Awards at Wellington tho Court states: 'In such an appeal the onus is east upon the union of satisfying the Court that 'owing to distance, diversity of interest, or other substantial reason, it will bo more convenient for the members to register separately than to join any existing union.' Tho applicants have furnished us with an approximate list and classification of tho council's employees who would probably becemo members of the proposed union. From this list it appears that more than 50 por cent, of these employees are general inbourers, many, if not most, of whom are- already members of tho Wellington General Labourers' Union. A further 15 per cent, aro drivers, nearly all of whom aro members of tho Wellington Motor-cnr, Horse Drivers' etc., Union A further five per cent, are craftsmen of various kinds, many of whom uro already members of their respective craft unions. Tho remainder are chiefly of u. nondescript character, but most of them aro of the labouring class, and ti.pnear bi be eligible for membership cf the General Labourers' Union.

"Wo can 6eo no good reas'on for which such of these workers as aro not already members of the appropriate unions should not bccouio such if they so desire; nor do we 600 any good reason for which those workers who are already members of a union should have forced upon them tho alternative of resigning from one union and joining another, or becoming members of a second union. It is further to bo noted that tho groat majority of the unions that have members employed by the council aro strongly opposed to the creation' of tho proposed union.

"Having regard to these facts, anil bearing in mind tho statutory injunction against the needless multiplication of industrial unions, we are unable to hold that any substantial reason has been shown for which 'it wil) be more convenient fW <tho members to. 'register soparateiy than to join tho existing union.'"