THE STRIKE RECOURSE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 24, 12 February 1937, Page 4

THE STRIKE RECOURSE.

An overnight message, at time of writing still awaiting confirmation, announces on the authority of the State Governor that "an agreement has been reached ending the strike which has crippled the production of General Motors since late in December.,, The document embodying the terms of settlement was, so it is said, to be signed at noon yesterday, so that during the day we may have word of thern. In the meantime, however, it is stated that the men are to evacuate the factories of which they — as was the case at the Auckland freezing works — had taken possession and the company — corporation the Americans call it— -is to withdraw the legal proceedings commenced with a view to expelling them by force. What might have happened had it proved necessary to resort to action of the kind may readily be imagined when we.mote that the Governor congratulates himself on the fact that, as it was, adjustment had been reached "without a single fatality." Assuming Governor Murphy's forecast to be fulfilled, the month will have seen the end of two of the most disturbing and costly industrial upheavals that have afflieted the United States for a good few years- The other was, of course, the maritime strike which, originating on the Pacific T)oast, was quicbly duplicated on the Atlantic. In each case scores of thousands of men have been directly involved, whilo. probably hundreds of thousands engaged in other industries and services were indirectly and seriously. affected so far as their earnings were concerned. Attempts have been made to estimate the monetary loss, some placing it at close on an American billion of dollars, of which a very great proportion represented loss of wages. It is difficult for us here to judge of the merits of either movement, because with us conditions differ so widely from those obtaining in the United States. There the trade unions have been accorded no such wide measure of legal recognition as has been granted them here- In both instanees the main struggle on the part of the men has been to establish the full right of "collective bargaining" such as has been in' accepted operation here for very many years. Nor have they there any equivalent to the Conciliation Councils and Arbitration Court that have come to be a fixed part of our industrial machinery. Nor, apparently, have they even set up any of the methods of friendly discussion and conciliation that in the Old Country have been voluntarily adopted by both employers and employees with wonderfully good results. For lack of these so useful and readily accessible aids to the settlement of genuinely grounded disputes and grievances the wage-earners of the, United States have seen no other recourse than to direct action such as here can find no justification in view of the industrial laws that have been gradually developed and in the end have been adopted and reaffirmed by a Labour Government. This, of course, naturally brings us to consider, in the light of recent events both in the United States and itti our own little country, what our Government's real intentions may be with regard to the mainte:-ance of our Industrial Arbitration Court and the upholding of its decisionsThe happenings of the Auckland "stay-in" — the American would term it "sit-down" strike — and all that our Minister of Labour had to say and did in connection with ii are too fresh in mind to need recalling and can barely be regarded as inspiring much conf idence so far as he individually is concerned. Then when we come to having a glance through some of the remits sent in for discussion at the Eastertime conferfence of the Labour Party, which, in particular, the Government represents, we find proposa'ls not only for the abolition of the Arbitration Court but also apparently for easing the law regarding strikes. It has to be assumed that these are seriously advanced, as they apparently have the backing of a large number of branch unions. They are, too, of course very much in keeping with some of the opinions to which Mr. Armstrong himself gave expressxon during the course of the Auckland trouble. Among our "militant" unions there is already a very much too strong dispositjon to ignore the Court and make the strike, "stay-in" or otherwise, or the go-slow action the first recourse for the remedy of grievances whether well or ill founded. What is likely to be the consequence of the Government giving way to the pressure thus being brought to bear d|i it may best be guessed from what has just happened in the United States and was on the verge of taking on a much uglier aspect.