UNIONISTS AND LABOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2414, 1 February 1909, Page 7

UNIONISTS AND LABOR.

[To the Editor.] Sir.—ln this morning’s issue I notice a paragraph which reads' thus: “IWuiajority of unionists arc lucifely agitators and are always on the books for employment, ' complained aV oinployor of labor at the jMagistratc’s Court yesterday.” This statement was made by a master builder who was convicted in two cases of a breach of the recent award, and I have no hesitation in characterising it as being wilfully false, vicious, and misleading statement, and reflecting.on the Carpenters’ Union, of which I happen to be president. There are some 70 odd members on the register of the Union, but at no time has there been more fcf'pmn eight on the employment-book. ■ 'Since I have been connected with this Union it has played the game, played it honestly, and unrightly and above board, which is more than this employer can say or lie would never have made the remark referred to. Employers must remember that they have seventy odd pairs of eyes watching, intent on preserving the privileges the law gives them. If, however, employers show by their actions that they are not a- law-abid-ing lot, they must expect to be made • to ..toe the mark occasionally, and if tW\v are men they will show it by not squealing. Since I have been President, of the Union its whole endeavours have been devoted to obtaining and keeping a peaceful equilibrium, but so long as there are employers' looking for fight, anxious to dodge the award to the extent of a penny .even, though it may and will cost them a pound to do it. so long will it be impossible to obtain that harmony which should exist between master and man, and which flH.sjSp.rl ion is making an honest endea>sf. -jfor to obtain. Thank Cod there arc a few honest, law-abiding employers in the district yet, or the conciliatory dream of the Union would he in vain. As for the unionists being agitators, that is false. They have an award, they are prepared to abide bv it, and they are determined, let the cost be what it may, that the employer shall abide by it also. There is nothing to agitate for—it is only a question of maintaining the award in its entirety. So long as unionism is conducted on honest, manly, straightforward lines, so long shall I >. -support and defend it. -But, if it once descends to the crooked and devious paths of agitating for the sake of it, I should be one of the first to condemn it.—l am, etc., W. MADDISON. President Amalgamated Society of Carpenters’ and Joiners’, Gisborne branch. Jan. 29th. 1909.