COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 30, 29 October 1937, Page 14

COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Our O.wn Correepond ent. >

Membership Doubled TNCREAiSE IN DISPUTES

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WELLINGTON, Thia Day. Compulsory uniqmem was one of tho lirst innovations of the Labour Government, and the ann'ual report . of the Labour Department shows, as a result, an. extraordinary growth in the numbers of trade uniopists of the Dominion. They have already moro than .doubled, the membership of 201 unions to December .last toialling 185,527, compared with less than 81,000 a year previously. Employers' associations number 201 with a membership of 6443, showing an increase for the year of 2098. There were 131 workers '„ unions when the comptflsory clauso commencea to operate, 'but the totdl shown in the report is. notv 201, and it is stated that tho new unions cover trades or occupations in which no such organfeations previously existed, or existed only in minor de^ree. An important . f eature of . the new legislation was. the permission for registration of unioni3 covering the whole Dominion, the whole of the North or South Islands or any group of two or more industrial distriets. Thirteen employers' and 11 workers' orgauisatums liave taken advautage of this provision. There. were 42 industrial disturbances compared with 20 in the previous year. "The increase," suggests the Tcport, "can be attributed mainly to disputes centring around the reduction of working hours to 40 and the restorations of the 1931 wage rates. "