BUILDERS’ LABOURERS.

Evening Star, Issue 22457, 30 September 1936, Page 12

BUILDERS’ LABOURERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr Harrison can see the writing on the wall. He is making a very belated attempt to justify his title of secretary of the Labourers’ Union. Mr Harrison states the union would welcome the builders’ labourers with open arms. As a financial member, I would remind Mr Harrison that we are paying his salary, plus expenses, to go out and organise these workers. Why is it not done? Who was responsible for the short-sighted policy of allowing the award to lapse and thereby throwing workers on the mercy of the employers ? I would also ask Mr Harrison if his appointment is made yearly ballot, or is the job permanent now. Who was the returning officer when the last

ballot was taken, and, further, were the envelopes used transparent, so that one could see the result without opening the envelope? I have a feeling that the correct answer to the above questions will justify the action of these workers in staying out of a union which is run on these lines. It_ is_ all very well for Mr Harrison to sit in a nice comfortable chair and allude to the employers as parasitical barnacles, etc., but does he realise that his employers —i.e., the workers, have to work hard for these same people to enable them to earn the humble sixpence that keeps the same Mr Harrison in a nice comfortable job, and he is not making their job any lighter by antagonising the employer with this sort of childish abuse?—l am, etc., Mixer. September 29.