TRADES AND LABOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1407, 18 March 1905, Page 3

TRADES AND LABOR.

(Per- Press Association.) Dunedin, last night. The Otago Trades and Labor Council has issued a statement in connection with tho new under rate clause, first adopted by the Arbitration Court in tbo Nelson carpenters’ award a few months ago, which is described as unfair, unreasonable, and onesided, and strikes such a serious blow at some ef the fundamental principles on which the arbitration system is based that the Council is compelled, both in the - m terests of workers and of the general-.nub'-| lie, to make the strongest possible protest" against the innovation, and to urge the Trades Councils throughout tbe colony to join in an effort to secure Parliamentary action in the matter. A number of reasons are'given against the clause, and the statement concludes : -The action of the Court in introducing this lopsided clause is only' tho culminating point in long series of unsatisfactory decisions and awards of the present Court. We desiro to speak with all possible respect of tbe President of Court, but we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that notwithstanding the Act gives tbe President and the Court great latitude with the view to facilitate arbitration on equitable and humanitarian lines, Mr Justice Chapman’s whole attitude has been in tbe direction of converting tbe Arbitration Court into merely a law oourt. More than that, decisions have been in almost every ease in favor of a particular side. The inevitable result has been to greatly weaken the workers’ confidence in the Court, ana drive them to adopting other methods of securing justice. We believe every friend of industrial peace in tbe commnnity would deplore even the remote possibility of a return to the old brutal methods of settling disputes, and we feel some confidence, therefore, that our appeal to Parliament to redress existing evils will nob bo made in vain. -